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The Ruins of a 115 Year Old Machine and Blacksmith Shop Were Almost Demolished to Expand Old Guilford Road
When the Maryland Granite Company began operating the Guilford Quarries in 1901, it was to be the most modern quarry operation possible. 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. A 1932 highway plat identified the structure as simply a “stone building”.
In 1976, Mr. Lunsford Luckadoo who owned the property that was recently developed, worked with Baltimore and mill historian John McGrain to identify a large remaining structure next to his granite house. He identified it as part of the old “machine and blacksmith shop to keep the quarry running”. In the same year, Howard County historian Joetta Cramm took photos of the larger structure which was destroyed when Guilford Road was replaced and expanded.
The remaining wall is reported to have held a generator for the quarry activites, likely housed in a wooden frame structure.
We all need to work to make sure structures like this are not needlessly destroyed and are recognized as the literal building blocks of what makes Guilford such a great and unique community.
Images above and below: 2018 photo of the remains of the housing of a generator to operate the quarry.
Photo above: This is a photo of the Guilford Quarry Machine and Blacksmith Shop from historian Joetta Cramm courtesy of the Howard County Historical Society - circa 1976
Image below: This is a photo of the Guilford Quarry Machine and Blacksmith Shop from historian Joetta Cramm courtesy of the Howard County Historical Society - circa 1976
Image below: This is a photo of the Guilford Quarry Machine and Blacksmith Shop from historian Joetta Cramm courtesy of the Howard County Historical Society - circa 1976
Image above: According to the previous owner of the adjacent property, this wall held the generator for the stone crushing operations possibly after the quarries stopped operating. There was a great deal of quarried granite left over and in 1918 William Handley was deeded the land and probably crushed as much stone as possible to sell, Another stone crusher was located across the river on the Howard Granite Company property.
Image above: The road plat above shows William Handley's (not Hanley) land containing a Frame Store, a Stone Building that may have been the Machine and Blacksmith Shop and a frame shed that may have contained the generator where the ruins are today. The short road shown between the Frame Store and Stone Building leads to the quarry. Source:1932 Guilford Road Plat done by the State Roads Commission of Maryland. Guilford-Atholton Control No. HO-34. Sheet No.1. Obtained online from the Maryland Land Records Website.
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