The Howard Granite Company

The Howard Granite Company of Howard County formed in early 1900 and was incorporated in March 1902. When the B&O Patuxent Branch rail line was extended to Guilford in 1902, the Howard Granite Company had the longest siding on the line at 1,280 feet to reach their quarries. Stone crushing was the main business at these quarries, a block of granite “25 feet long, 12 feet wide and 5 feet thick” was removed from their quarries in 1902 which the Baltimore Sun described as “unprecedented”.

At the end of 1903, Howard Granite Company leased their operations for 3 years to Briesen, Miller and Kirkpatrick.  The operations were then sold in 1906 to the Guilford Granite and Stone Company that operated in 1907 and the property was sold in 1909.  There is no record of the quarries operating after that.

There were three small quarries operated on this land - the west/south side of the Little Patuxent River upstream and across the river from the Maryland Granite Company. The quarried were described as “three small openings, the largest on of which is about 75 by 60 feet and 50 feet deep. The object of the company was to produce crushed stone, and a large crusher was operated near the quarry. Operations were suspended about four months prior to the writer’s examination in March 1908.” (USGS 1910, p. 56)

When the Guilford Granite and Stone Company was released from their deed of trust the company had owned “a #6 Austin Gyratory Crusher, a #4 Champion Crusher, a 125-horsepower locomotive boiler, a 100 horse power Atlas Engine” and miscellaneous tools and materials including a hoisting engine, steam pumps and drills.  The Howard Granite Company was listed as the B&O siding up until the time of the official abandonment of the Patuxent Branch Line in 1928. 

In a map associated with a 1933 deed from Handley to Kesterson the Howard Granite Company’s former land was still labelled in their name and showed the location of the ruins of old stone crusher at the edge of their former property.

It is likely that the 50-foot-deep quarry was filled in as a pathway was built over the former quarry location.