Maryland Granite Company

Leading up to Guilford’s hey-day was its 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. But by far the biggest and most prosperous of the companies was the Maryland Granite Company that finally brought the railroad to Guilford.  We hope that our description allows you to visualize the physical magnitude of this company and the indelible mark it left in Guilford.

In 1900, the Baltimore Sun made an announcement of a B&O Railroad extension planned from Savage to Guilford “intended to afford transportation facilities for the large and important granite quarries at Guilford, the product of which is exceedingly valuable.” (May 2, 1900). (1) The Guilford Quarry Railroad was completed quickly and opened in April 1901. (2) What was yet to come could not have been expected.

When the Maryland Granite Company began operating the Guilford Quarries in 1901, it was to be the most modern quarry operation possible. The company would own and operate its railway siding, telegraph and telephone service, post office and company store as well as housing for the workers. (3) There would also be a new community hall and large hotel for up to 200 workers.(4) The description by Monumental News in 1902 of these operations is impressive:

“The cutting shed is 400 feet long by 60 feet wide, with two travelling cranes. There are two 150 horse power boilers and engines. Thirty-five compressed air hand tools and several surfacing machines are in use and others are to be added. Eighteen hundred cubic feet of free air is generated a minute, compressed air being used to operate the derricks and drills on the quarries as well as the surfacing and hand tools in the shed. There are seven derricks. Two new ones now being put up have Oregon pine masts 100 feet long. 28 inches at the butt and 25 inches at the top. They are being equipped with Whitcomb Brothers' latest improved hoists and turning gear. The booms are 86 feet long. Twenty new cottages and a boarding house are being built and land has been deeded by the company for a school house and church. When fully in operation 400 work men will be employed, of which about one-half will be stone cutters.” (5)

To maintain the large steam plant and air compressor to operate power hoists, drills and pneumatic tools, and a three-motor type 20-ton overhead traveling crane in addition to the cutting shop, polishing machines, and all of the latest appliances for cutting and dressing granite, a machine and blacksmith shop was needed. (6)

In 1908, the USGS noted “The Maryland Granite Company's quarry is on the east side of Little Patuxent River 2 miles north of Savage Factory and about 5 miles northwest of Annapolis Junction. It is the principal quarry in the Guilford area and was the only one operating at the time of examination in 1908… The quarry measures about 500 by 300 feet and has a depth of about 100 feet. The average depth of stripping is about 10 feet. The sheets, 3 to 10 feet thick, are approximately horizontal and tapering lenticular. Vertical joints strike north-south and east-west, recurring at wide intervals.” (7)

Maryland Granite Company marked the industry pinnacle for Guilford that employed hundreds of courageous workers and many that molded the modern town of Guilford. In 1901, Rev. Willis Carter, a minister and skilled granite driller from Richmond, VA, had only recently arrived in Guilford to work in those quarries. Rev. Carter was working in the Guilford quarries as did Jacob Coleman, George Green, Richard Chaney, Dennis Harding, Maurice Thomas, Richard Carter (son of Willis), Ed Warner, Raymond Brown, Wade Watkins, Joseph William, Albert, Henry Boston, and so many others. Some of these workers represent the founding families of the First Baptist Church of Guilford started by Rev. Carter in 1900/1901. (8)

William H. Evans, the president and owner of the company, died in January 1917.  On July 18, 1917, the plant and equipment  “formerly the property of Maryland Granite Company at Guilford, Howard County, MD” was advertised for auction including “all the modern machinery, railroad rails” amounting to about a mile weighing between 125 and 150 tons, engines, boilers, derricks, and much more.  (9)  This sale of equipment from the quarry should dispel the myth that it shut down due to being flooded.  By 1919, the remarkable story of the Maryland Granite Company ended in the dissolution of the company. This also marked the end of the Guilford quarry industry after 85 years of operation by a variety of workers and companies.   ____________________________________________________________________________

Sources

1) B. And O. Railroad Extension.  May 2, 1900. The Baltimore Sun

2) Guilford Quarry Railroad Completed April 15, 1901 Baltimore Sun

3) Maryland Granite Company. Feb. 14, 1901. The Baltimore Sun.

4) Realty and Building. April 12, 1902. The Baltimore Sun.

5) Monumental News. A Monthly Journal of Monumental Art. Volume 14, June 1902. Number 6. P. 378
6) Stone An Illustrated Magazine. Volume 22. January 1901 to June 1901. p. 145

7) Watson, Thomas Leonard. 1910. Granites of the Southeastern Atlantic States, US Geological Survey Bulletin 426. Chapter 2, pp 54-56. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC - 287 pages.
8) Census Records are available from 1900,1910,1920 containing the names of the individuals who identified as quarry workers.
9) Special and Important Auction Sale. July 11, 1917. The Baltimore Sun.
10) In the Circuit Court of Baltimore City.  Jan. 18, 1918. Baltimore Daily Record