Did You Know? #6 Gorman and Murray Hill are Scenic Roads?

Two of the only three scenic roads in the southeastern part of Howard County are in our backyard: Gorman and Murray Hill Roads.

GORMAN ROAD. Road names are customarily taken from families or individuals. Peter Gorman was born in Woodstock and moved to this area in the 1840s. He worked on building the first B&O rail line between Ellicott Mills and Woodstock. Peter and his son, Arthur Pue Gorman, lived just up the hill from the current Vollmerhausen Road. Arthur was elected as US Senator in 1881 and represented Maryland for the old Democratic Party.  Gorman was known as a staunch believer in restricting voting rights of those that are illiterate or "ignorant", referring to the Black community and some White immigrants.  He strongly supported the Poe Amendment which would disenfranchise mostly Black voters.  See Gorman's biography from the Maryland State Archives. 

The Gorman family has a storied history, but I can give it only a mention here. Of a lighter note Arthur Gorman was one of the founders of the Washington Baseball Club (https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/arthur-gorman/).  Gorman Road connected the Columbia Pike to Savage Mill and passes several historic houses. Before it became known as Gorman Road in the 1960s, it was referred to as Johnson Lane for Arthur Gorman’s son-in-law and president of the Laurel Race Track.

MURRAY HILL ROAD was named for Murray Peddicord, an influential farmer and businessman, who lived in the historic Stewart-Earp House across from Clocktower Lane, called Granite Hill. The families farming the land wanted to connect Gorman Road to the Guilford Factory, which was producing cotton and granite from the quarries. They made a request for a new road in 1868 which was granted the following year for a fee of $150.

Murray Hill Road also passes famous historic houses including Granite Hill, which was built in the early 1800s, before the quarries were commercially operating.

Source: Much of the material was taken from “History of the Murray Hill Road and Gorman Road Area” by Dr. Larry Madaras, Associate Professor of History and Government, Howard Community College, April 1985.