One of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the United States is Newport, Rhode Island's stone carver John Stevens Shop. John Stevens immigrated from England in 1698 and later set up shop in Newport in 1705. For more than 220 years three generations of Stevens produced some of colonial America's most beautiful gravestones, many of which can still be seen in the Common Burying Ground near the carving shop. The business was purchased by John Benson in 1927 and is now run by third generation Nicholas Benson. Profiled by the History Channel and studied by Google, "this olde shop" exemplifies what it takes for a business to survive over the centuries. Nicholas Benson has been awarded both the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. Stone carving is a craft and Benson says each job requires personal, painstaking execution, one chisel stroke at a time. "The minute you try to turn this into a growth business, you lose all sight of what the product is, what you have devoted years and years to getting good at. You don't get rich doing it. So unless you really love it and you have a great legacy like this one, why bother?"
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