Murray Hill

The Murray of Murray Hill Road

The early families farming the land wanted to connect Gorman Road, which already connected to Savage Mill, to the Guilford Factory, which was producing cotton and granite from the quarries. They made a request for a new road in 1868 which was granted the following year for a fee of $150.  Murray Hill Road also passes famous historic houses including Granite Hill, which was built in the early 1800s, before the quarries were commercially operating.

MURRAY HILL ROAD was named for the farm of Murray Peddicord, an influential farmer and businessman, who lived in the historic Stewart-Earp House across from Clocktower Lane, called Granite Hill. In 1950, Murray G. Peddicord and his wife Helen purchased the Stewart-Earp house near Guilford and the 220 acre farm that surrounded it. They called it Murray Hill Farm.

In 1953, the Howard County government implemented a program to place street signs on county roads. Previously, few roads were marked with signs, and roads were often locally known by different names, which added to the confusion. The 1953 street sign program resulted in county employees selecting official names for hundreds of streets and roads.

The name selected for the road that ran through Murray Hill Farm was Murray Hill Road and was in the 1966 Howard County Prescriptive Road Index.

Murray G. Peddicord, who was born in Howard County, started a business in 1933 and owned a hardware and appliance store on Main Street in Ellicott City from 1938 until they sold in 1956.  

In 1956 Murray Peddicord and his wife sold the Murray Hill Road property and in 1957 they moved to Florida, where Murray died in 1958 at the age of 46.

Timing is everything, as they say, and although Murray Peddicord only owned the Murray Hill Road farm for six years it was during those years that the road was named which resulted in him leaving a lasting mark on the area.

Notes:

Some of this material was taken from “History of the Murray Hill Road and Gorman Road Area” by Dr. Larry Madaras, Associate Professor of History and Government, Howard Community College, April 1985 (see document below). 

The attached article from the Dec. 3, 1953 Ellicott City Times about the street sign program includes a photo of the Murray Hill Road sign and a photo of a Savage street sign.

The full page advertisement for Peddicord's  Appliances - Hardware,  was in the Ellicott City Times Anniversary Issue of 1947.