Stickney Stephen A & Sons

Stephen A. Stickney & Sons has been laying masonry in Essex County since 1946 — eighty years, three generations on, run today by partners Shawn, Kerry and Daniel Stickney with six employees. Working from 63 Middleton Rd in Boxford, the firm handles a full range of residential, commercial and industrial masonry contract work, and also trades as Stephen Stickney Construction Company. The one customer account on record shows what that means in practice: in a December 2022 review, a homeowner described Kerry and Sean rebuilding their chimney and stucco siding and fitting copper chimney pots on a hundred-year-old house, and finished with "I would trust them with a key to my house!" That account carries more weight than an anonymous rave because the two people it names are partners in the firm, which is the kind of detail a real customer supplies and an invented review does not. It is also, however, the entire written record — a single 5-star account from 2022 — so it establishes that one job went very well, not how the firm performs across many. Two things to know before calling. The Better Business Bureau lists the company as NOT accredited and rates it "Not Rated", saying it does not have sufficient information to issue a rating — a gap in BBB's file rather than a finding against the work. And because the practical trade here is masonry, brickwork and chimney work rather than basement waterproofing, homeowners who came looking for foundation waterproofing should confirm the scope directly. This is the right call for a homeowner wanting a long-established local mason for chimney, stucco or stonework — and the right moment to ask for recent references, since the public record thins out after 2022.