Guilford Road - since the 1790s

Guilford Road – Since the 1790s

The origins of Guilford Road were a curiosity spurred by Howard Community College Professor Larry Madaras' writings about the origins of Gorman and Murray Hill Roads in 1985. There was a Guilford Road referred to within Savage in a newspaper article in 1892 which appears to be the current Savage-Guilford Road. The first reference we could find of the modern Guilford Road was in 1913 when Col. George King III was reported to the “seriously ill at his home on the Guilford Road” in Annapolis Junction. Since 1928 the road that ran from Annapolis Junction to Clarksville was called Guilford Road and much of it still exists.

Guilford Road Connected Richard Owings Mills in the 1790s

The earliest map we have that provides any details on the historic roads in Howard County was a Maryland map done by Dennis Griffith in 1794 and can be retrieved using the Library of Congress Website. Howard County was part of upper Anne Arundel County at the time a featured just a few public roads – the road we would now call Route 108 from Snell’s Bridge over the Patuxent River to present-day Clarksville and Simpsonville eventually turning east to Elkridge Landing where it met with present-day Route 1. These routes are much clearer in the Martinet Map of 1860.

In 1794, the Griffith map shows two mills belonging to Richard Owings – one on the Middle Patuxent River (formerly Owingsville and present-day Simpsonville) and the other on the Little Patuxent at Guilford. The earliest record of the name Guilford was in a 1792 deed when Richard Stringer sold “Guilford Mills” to Archibald Moncreiff setting up the ownership and purchase by Richard Owings. A road connecting the Guilford and Owingsville mills of Richard Owings seems the most reasonable origins of Guilford Road. In 1818, Richard Owing’s will mentions a “main road leading to my mills” which is likely the first real leg of Guilford Road.

Guilford Road in the 1800s

The 1860 map by Simon Martenet which was “drawn entirely from actual surveys” shows the road connecting between the two Owings mills in much greater detail. In fact, this road clearly went from Simpsonville past Guilford Factory to Magnolia and then Annapolis Junction where the Washington Branch of the B&O met the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis electric railway. The town of Magnolia sprawled over the Washington Turnpike (Route 1) intersection with Guilford Road, was a historic black churches – the “Asbury Colored Methodist Episcopal church”.

The 1878 map by G. M. Hopkins shows Guilford as a primary public road crossing the Guilford District (HoCo election district 6) from Annapolis Junction to Simpsonville. It would not be surprising if it was called “The Guilford Road” during this time.

Guilford Road in the 1900s

In the 1920s, the Maryland State Roads Commission upgraded Guilford Road and it was identified by name in a 1927 real estate article in the Sun as well as a 1928 article on the expansion of Washington Boulevard in the area of Guilford Road. It was routinely referred to as Guilford Road since 1928.

By 1942, Guilford Road was also known as Route 106 on the USGS topo map going from Route 1 west past Simpsonville to Clarksville and west to Dayton. In the 1948 Baltimore area topo map Guilford Road was now called Route 32. A 1952 road map showed Route 32 extended as far north and west as Eldersburg and as far east as Fort Meade. According to long-time Guilford resident Ms. Beaulah Moore, her address was always Route 32 in Guilford, until in the 1950s she and other residents began using Guilford Road as their formal address and it was soon adopted by the postal service. A 1954 Baltimore area topo map extended route 32 from Westminster to Fort Meade. Guilford Road, as part of Route 32, was labelled on a 1974 topo map of Howard County between Route 108 near Clarksville and Annapolis Junction, then called Fort George G Meade Junction. By 1988 Route 32 had replaced Guilford Road as the main east west roadway but much of the original Guilford Road is still intact (see attachment).

Historic Properties along Guilford Road

In the 1800s through the mid-1950s, Guilford Road featured access to historic plantation homes, churches and other historic structures between Guilford and Simpsonville Mills which are listed on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (MIHP). Other than the mills and factories themselves, homes such as the Spano Family house, Granite Park, Moundland, Wildwood, Worthington-Carr house, Freetown area, Harriett Tubman School, Athol, Hatfield residence, and the Coate house. Guilford quarry is among the historic sites in the MIHP but the Guilford cemetery is not yet listed, and the Guilford Pratt through Truss Bridge is pending review of the nomination for the National Register of Historic Places. The 1923 Guilford colored school along Mission Road and Guilford is among other historic structures on the MIHP.

Among the historic churches along Guilford Road starting from Simpsonville towards Annapolis junction are Locust Methodist, Alberta Gary Methodist, First Baptist Church of Guilford, and Asbury. Each of these churches have a prominent history and Locust and Asbury are historically black churches that originated before the civil war. The First Baptist Church of Guilford began in 1903 by Rev. Willis J. Carter a foreman at the Guilford quarry. Families knew each other from these churches and formed a social network along Guilford Road.