Guilford Quarries

In the 1830s, when Guilford Mill began producing cotton, the granite quarries began a commercial operation and the area became known as Guilford Factory. The quarries started in 1834, according to a later report from the US Geological Survey, and in 1835, the owners of the Woodstock granite quarries, Putney and Riddle, purchased the land where the larger Guilford quarry stands today. True Putney and Hugh Riddle operated the Woodstock and Guilford quarries until about 1840 when they ran into legal troubles.

These quarries produced a high quality granite called Guilford quartz monzonite which is located only in the southeastern part of Howard County (see map to the right). This Guilford granite extended to the Atholton area where some minor mining occurred. 

In 1835, the new Savage station on the Washington Branch of the B&O likely encouraged commercial development of the Guilford quarries which needed a transportation route for the quarried stones and mill products to get to market. With the train station about 4 miles away, haulers, like local farmer and blacksmith Henry A. Penny, who eventually owned much of the land for the quarry operations, ran a business starting in the 1850s transporting the quarry blocks by ox cart to the train station. Despite the promise of rail service to Guilford as early as 1835, the train did not come to Savage Mill until 1887, but that sparked new hope of train service and the revival of the quarries after the Civil War.  

The quarries saw different owners and managers since their start.  The business boom started in the late 1890s and early 1900s when the Guilford Granite Company, Howard Granite Company, Guilford and Waltersville Granite Company, and the Maryland Granite Company began operations.  The Maryland Granite Company was the largest  and provided finished stone products and the Howard Granite Company focused on crushed granite.  

It was the fulfillment of the promise of a railroad extension from Savage Mill to Guilford in 1902 that brought renewed interest in the Guilford Quarries and economic prosperity to Guilford.  The Patuxent Branch Line between Savage and Guilford operated from 1902 until 1928 with several business stops between Savage Mill and Guilford Factory.  The Patuxent Branch Line between the Washington Branch and Savage operated until the quarry operations closed.   

Please see the historical marker for the Granite Quarries on the Patuxent Branch Trail.  

Learn more about the Four Main Quarries from the 1910 USGS document entitled "Granites of the Southeastern United States".  Also see our pages on:

Guilford Granite

Guilford & Waltersville Granite Company 

The Machine and Blacksmith Shop

Maryland Granite Company

Howard Granite Company