The quarry on the Frederick turnpike is now a gas station and store very near the flour mill. Note the high straight back wall to the right.
From the Maryland Geological Survey 1898 -
"The Ellicott City granite area consists of an irregular L-shaped mass,
which has an extreme length of about
five miles in an east and west direction and a breadth varying from one-half to two miles. …
The quarries of Ellicott City are situated nine miles by road from
Baltimore and fifteen miles by railroad. They are located on either side of the
Patapsco river in Baltimore and Howard counties, and the rock in which they
occur extends on the eastern side of the
Patapsco as far east as Ilchester, but on the western side only as far as Grays.
The material on the Baltimore county or eastern side is a fine grained mass, with a decided foliation or
gneissic structure. On the opposite side of the river in Ellicott City itself it is more uniform and granitic.
The time of opening these quarries dates back probably into the last of
the 18th century, but the details are entirely wanting. The beautiful
appearance of some of the more uniformly porphyritic specimens early attracted
attention, and in the earliest works which we have on this area, that by Dr. Hayden, published in 1811, mention is
made of these quarries. [see below]
Granite types
Probably no area of granite
within the state shows as great variation in the texture and the character of
the rock as that about Ellicott City. In the quarries on the eastern side [Baltimore
County] of the river the rock appears quite schistose and homogeneous, and
practically lacking in porphyritic crystals. Through it are scattered large
patches or segregations of the darker minerals, which give to the rock the
somewhat sombre effect displayed by the Baltimore Cathedral. These patches do
not weaken the rock, though they render the stone less attractive. On the other
side of the river [Howard County], as has been mentioned already, the stone has
a distinctly porphyritic character, which gives to it a mottled effect, well
shown in Plate XI. The increased amount of feldspar brightens the rock and the
distribution of the crystals adds detailed variety to the structures in which
it is used.
The microscopic texture of the porphyritic type is shown in the
reproduced photomicrograph (Plate IX, Fig. 2) where the grains are represented
ten times their natural size. There is nothing particularly noticeable in the
arrangement of the constituent since they unite with interlocking sutures, as
already described in the discussion of the Port Deposit granites.
Baltimore Catholic Cathedral
built 1806-1821
It is not certain whether the quarry on the Baltimore county side or
the quarries of the Howard county side furnished the first material for
Baltimore, but it is clearly evident from the character of the rock furnished
for the Catholic Cathedral, that the gneiss was the more important rock at that
time. Local tradition assigns the source of the stone sometimes to the
Baltimore county side and sometimes to the Howard county side and the published
information is equally conflicting and indefinite. When the Cathedral was
constructed during the years 1806 to 1812 and subsequently from 1815 to 1821,
the material was hauled from Ellicott City to Baltimore along the old Frederick
road in huge wagons drawn by nine yoke
of oxen.
After furnishing the rock for this building, which must have been one
of the most important stone structures in the United States at the time of its
construction, the quarries evidently were worked only to meet local demands. In
fact they have never since been of such relatively great importance. Dr. David
Dale Owen, indeed, while studying the various building stones of Maryland at
Cockeysville, Woodstock and Port Deposit, with the view of gaining all the
information for the Smithsonian building, twice passed by these quarries and
yet makes no mention of them. At the time of the Tenth Census the agent remarks
that he "knows of no other place in the country where there are so many
stone buildings in an area of the same size."
Werner quarry
Of the quarries in operation at the present day those of Werner Bros, were opened as early as
the beginning of the century. In 1872 Charles J. Werner reopened a quarry,
which since his death in 1888 has been operated by his sons, who purchased in
1890 a second quarry, which had previously been opened by Robert Wilson. These quarries became of some importance in 1893,
when one of them is spoken of as the principal Ellicott City quarry, although
it is now producing little or no
building stone except during the fall of the year when random rubble is
quarried for local use. The output for the year 1896 did not aggregate over 200
perches.
Weber quarry
The most active quarry at the present is that operated by A. Weber (see Plate XII, Fig. 2). This
quarry is situated on the Howard county side some distance below the station.
The material has been furnished in recent years for some important buildings,
as those of the Woman's College of Baltimore, but most of the material seems to
be used for Belgian blocks, curbing and macadam.
In the Weber quarry there is one prominent series of bedding joints,
which strikes in a southeasterly direction and dips at a low angle into the
hill. The jointing is so prominent and so irregular that it modifies the manner
of quarrying quite perceptibly, as the stone is first obtained in irregular
masses and then worked into desired form by hand. Such a process increases the cost of operation, but at the same time furnishes
considerable random rubble of a size suitable for ballast and rough road
material.
Across the river from the Weber quarry, in the opening worked by Gaither, the jointing is more regular
and the face of the quarry is seamed into innumerable rhomboids several feet in
diameter (Plate XII, Fig. 1).
The opportunities for shipment and drainage are good. Those of the Weber quarry are seldom excelled, as
the opening is in the side of a hill so close to the tracks of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad (main stem) that cars may be loaded simply by turning the derrick boom. [Hoisting crane]
Maryland Geological Survey, v2
1898
Weber Quarry by the railroad station 1910
The Weber quarry, opened in moderately high cliffs along the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on the opposite side of Patapsco River from the
Gaither quarry, is the principal quarry in the Ellicott City area in Howard
County. The opportunity for shipment is excellent, as the quarry is so close to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
that cars are readily loaded by turning the derrick boom. …
The Weber quarry was the only quarry operating in the Ellicott City
area at the time of examination in 1908.
Watson, Thomas Leonard. Granites
of the southeastern Atlantic states.
1910
Dr. Haydin's 1811 mention of rock in Ellicott's mills --
Links on quarries, and tools, here: HERE
©2017 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD
"Slaty and crystalline granite appear to predominate, mixed with slates
and a rock approaching hornblende rock in external character. The granite may
be well seen in the neighborhood of Ellicott's mills, where there are extensive
quarries that furnish vast quantities for the Baltimore market."
The American Journal of Science.
1834
"Quarries of granite were immediately on the ground, and of beautiful
quality; but the implements used for blasting rocks, cutting down trees,
digging out foundations, and for other laborious purposes had been brought from
Pennsylvania, where, as in other colonies of Great Britain, they were regularly
imported. The only iron tools manufactured in Baltimore county were crowbars,
which, through the favor of the proprietors of Dorsey's Forge, named Avalon,
were afterwards purchased from that iron works, also situated on the Patapsco,
near Elkridge Landing."
Tyson
Dr. Haydin's 1811 mention of rock in Ellicott's mills --
"Here it may not be amiss to notice a peculiarity which is observable in
this part of the ridge; I have observed that its course was in some instances
almost due east and west; at others almost north and south. An instance of this
kind is visible at this place and at Gwinn's Falls. The stratified part of the
ridge, or southern half has an inclination of nearly forty-five degrees west of
south, while the unstratified or northern part runs nearly in a westerly
direction, and seems to terminate abrubtly at Gwinn's Falls, at the distance of
three miles, (I should judge) from and above the Frederick, Town road. The
above course of the stratified range is continueded in its south westerly
direction until near Gwinn's Falls, it
seems to take a direction of about twenty degrees west of south, while the
stream or current (the course of which above the ridge is north and south) runs
over its bed nearly at a right angle across the ridge, or quite in an eastern
direction; after which is assumes a course nearly south; while the ridge, in
part is continued down on the west side of the stream and passes the Frederick
Town road, a small distance from the bridge erected over the falls at Messrs.
Ellicott's mills."
“Haydin’s Geological Sketch of Baltimore” July
12, 1811 in The Baltimore Medical and Philosophical Lycæum, volume 1
Links on quarries, and tools, here: HERE
©2017 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD
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