Granite National Historic District
Baltimore County, Baltimore County, Maryland
Marker Inscription
Granite National Historic District Some of the finest granite on the North American continent was quarried in this area for over a century. The village of granite was first named Waltersville after the Walters/Blunt family who founded the local quarrying industry circa 1820. The two largest quarries were Waltersville and Fox Rock. These and smaller quarries counted hundreds of stonecutters among their employees. One of the most important uses was for America's first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio. This construction included the famous Thomas Viaduct, a vital link between Baltimore and Washington. The quality of this stone led to its use in such buildings as the Library of Congress, the inner walls of the Washington Monument, old patent office and the Baltimore Custom House. Local granite was the choice for foundations, gateposts, garden walls, cemetery monuments, churches and schools. Many homes, still seen nearby housed the hardy workmen and their families forming a community. Proudly named for its most famous natural resource, granite. Granite was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Erected by the Granite Historical Society--1996
Erected by Granite Historical Society
The Story
For more than a century the village of Granite—first called Waltersville after the family that opened the industry around 1820—shipped some of North America's finest building stone. Its Waltersville and Fox Rock quarries employed hundreds of stonecutters whose granite went into the Baltimore & Ohio's pioneering railroad, the Thomas Viaduct, and landmark buildings including the Library of Congress and the inner walls of the Washington Monument. The workers' homes still cluster nearby, and the district was placed on the National Register in 1994.
Why it matters
Granite's quarries supplied the stone for some of the nation's most important structures, a working community that literally helped build nineteenth-century America.
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