Did You Know? #12 Guilford Granite was used in Famous Buildings and Monuments

Guilford Granite was quarried for building of homes in the very early 1800s before it was commercially mined at the Guilford quarries. The Charles Stewart house, called Granite Park, was built with the Guilford granite quarried along the Middle Patuxent River upstream of Murray Hill Road. By 1834, commercial operations commenced near the Little Patuxent River next to the Guilford Factory but little had been published about its uses.

Guilford granite was also used in Savage to improve the Savage Factory Dam and as the abutments supporting the Bollman Bridge when it was reported in the Sun (1888) that the granite would be shipped to Washington DC and other contracted areas. It was reported in 1890 that the quarries produced Belgian blocks which were bricks of granite used for a variety of building purposes. Some of the granite used for improvements to the Savage Mill foundation in the 1890s were likely from Guilford quarries.

Over a 60 year period (1853 – 1911) Guilford granite was used for at least the following structures:

• The Washington National Monument (yes, that big one!)

• Baltimore Custom House

• US Capitol

• US Treasury Building

• General/Senator Philip Reed memorial slab from Guilford granite (6’ x 3’ x 1’)

• Lt Colonel William Watson memorial monument (20’ high)

• Mount St. Mary’s Church cornerstone

• Gettysburg monument of soldiers from Hanover (20’ high)

• Hyattsville First Presbyterian Church Chapel

The Washington Monument

Most famous and unusual is the contribution of a block of granite from the Guilford quarries that made its way into the Washington Monument. It is extremely difficult to find information on this, but an 1853 newspaper article in the Baltimore Sun confirmed that the City of Baltimore contributed a block to the Washington Monument from the Guilford quarries [note – this was for the interior of the monument].

The inscription read “Anno 1855. By the citizens of Baltimore. May Heaven to this Union continue its beneficence. May brotherly affection with Union be perpetual. May the Free Constitution, which is the work of our ancestors, be sacredly maintained, and its administration be stamped with wisdom and virtue.”

The Baltimore stone was one of more than 190 memorial stones inside the Washington Monument representing states, cities, groups and individuals during the first phase of construction. As I learn of more uses of Guilford granite, I will update this information. I hope some of our friends will also have some information to contribute. Comments, suggestions and information are always welcome.

Sources:

Baltimore Sun (multiple years)

Stone: An Illustrated Magazine (1902, 1903, 1911, 1914).

Vera Ruth Filby’s “Savage” (1965)

For more information about the construction of the Washington Monument by the Corps of Engineers.