MANKATO — A 125-year-old limestone plant is closing in Mankato.

Kasota Stone owner Robert Coughlan says they’ve probably kept the business going longer than they should have for sentimental reasons. Coughlan says that as a fourth-generation owner, the closure is tough.

More than two dozen employees have been laid off or have found work with another Coughlan family business. The recession and a slowdown in construction have hurt Kasota Strone, one of Mankato’s oldest businesses.

Besides cutting dimensional stone from the quarries for building construction, Coughlan also leases quarry space to a company that breaks stone into aggregate. That operation will continue.

Mining is Mankato’s oldest industry. Its first quarry opened a year after the town was founded in 1858.