The Little Town that Wouldn't Die

Guilford – the Little Town that Wouldn’t Die

An NPR article entitled “A Brief History of How Racism Shaped Interstate Highways” reminded me of what happened to Guilford in the 1960s. [see https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984784455/a-brief-history-of-how-racism-shaped-interstate-highways]. Guilford was a nice, quiet community before James Rouse brought his vision for Columbia and it massive development to come. The highway system proposed in the 1960s included both Interstate 95 and State Route 32 and as you can see in the image, those two highways would permanently geographically divide the Guilford community.

By the 1960’s Guilford was known as a historically Black community developed by the influx of quarry workers starting in 1901. One of those workers was Willis J. Carter, a founder and the first minister of the First Baptist Church of Guilford. There was a small Black community in Guilford before Rev. Carter arrived, and he and his wife Mary set about to organize efforts to promote education for the all of their children, provide housing for some of the workers, and even employment for some on their farm. It helped that Mary was an experienced farm manager and businesswomen when they had lived in Virginia just a few years earlier.

Most in the community were affiliated with one of the granite quarry companies, the largest being the Maryland Granite Company. This company brought a great deal of employment as they finally fulfilled the promise of connecting the Guilford area to the Washington Branch railroad in 1902. They were now able to use the Patuxent Branch railroad to carry their goods to various markets including Washington DC, Baltimore and beyond. (In 2021, the Guilford Pratt Through Truss Bridge across the Little Patuxent River at the quarries was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.)

By about 1917, the market for granite decreased enough to shut down the once profitable granite quarries. The quarry workers put their efforts into expanding existing, and developing new, businesses as well as continuing the push better education for their students. The First Baptist Church of Guilford and its public school was the fabric of this community and despite the obstacles of Jim Crow segregation the church family grew and a new school building was opened in 1923. In 1954 a new and much larger elementary school opened which was finally desegregated in 1965, 11 years after the Supreme Court decided segregation was illegal in public schools.

In the early 1960s Rouse Company operatives were gobbling up land under the guise of several different entities and by 1965, Charles E. Miller lead the approval to rezone all of Columbia so development could begin. These plans included making Route 32 into a full expressway. Shortly after Guilford Elementary School was desegregated (it remains the only formerly segregated school still operating in Howard County) the plans for a new interstate through the northeast corridor were becoming a reality.

In 1967 it was reported that I-95 and its interchange with Route 32 would displace about 11 of the 40 Black families in Guilford. The Baltimore Sun article reporting on this quoted the State Roads Commission: “They would not be able to find housing in Howard county that would be acceptable and that they could afford”. The State Roads Commission offered to provide fair market value for the homes of those being displaced (ended up being 8 families) but the relocation site chosen along Mission Road was described as “swampy”. The State Roads Commission agreed to provide proper drainage for the land and 4 of the residents agreed to be relocated. It is not certain the disposition of the other 4.

Between the encroachment of the new Columbia development and the building of I-95 and the exchange with Route 32 the situation was dire for Guilford in 1972. In a February article of the Columbia Villager, a paper that lasted only 2 years, the headline read “Progress spells death for our rural town – Columbia squeezed Guilford out”. It was reported that 20% of the residents sold their land to developers as development of the General Electric Plant and the Guilford Industrial Center closed in on the residents. Church membership dropped. The talk of a huge Marriott theme park along Vollmerhausen Road didn’t help the concerns.

The article continued “Although there is little distinction between white and black neighborhoods, residents maintain two racially separate existences which revolve around two churches, one completely black, one completely white. A minister called the town “pre Martin Luther King.” Even the future of Guilford Elementary School was in doubt – “Although Guilford school is scheduled for refurbishing in two years, residents don’t think there will be a Guilford school next year” due to the drop in population and the “high rate of turnover” of the principals of the school.

Although the Marriott theme park never materialized, the Guilford community was forever changed by I-95 and the interchange with Route 32. Many people from the original families of the community still live there and the population has greatly grown since the 1970s. In a March 24, 1991 Washington Post article called “Patchwork Development Passes by Working Poor” Ms. Beaula Moore, who still lives on Guilford Road, was interviewed on how she felt about the encroachment of Columbia’s development. She said “We’re fighting to stay as long as we can…We want them [the newcomers] to conform to our ways, not use to conform to them.” Fortunately, Ms. Moore is still there and will celebrate her 98th birthday in June (see our Oral History Interview with Ms. Moore conducted in October of 2020).

Despite the hardships this Guilford community is a resilient and proud one.

NOTE: The Columbia Villager only lasted two years and based on this reporting about encroaching development affecting a historically Black community, it is not surprising they didn’t last. Columbia and Howard County need an independent newspaper to report on those things that are not so pleasant and to shine a light on government as well as on development in our growing area. The independent Laurel Leader was recently sold to the Baltimore Sun who will just regurgitate targeted area news. We need an independent local newspaper.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FriendsGuilfordHistory/permalink/5408877282474605/