Granite Quarry at Ellicott’s Patapsco Mills 1815

Benjamin Brown wrote that he leased the early quarry at Ellicott's mills and his announcement/advertisement was picked up by a London weekly! The granite was used to build the Cathedral and other buildings in Baltimore, particularly in "Columns or Pilasters of any dimensions, Basement Stories or Fronts of Houses, door or window Cases and Cills."



Grey Granite Stone
The subscriber, who has taken for a term of years, the Granite Quarry at Ellicott’s Patapsco Mills, is in readiness to receive any orders with which he may be favoured, and which will be executed at a short notice.

From the nature of the stone of this quarry, and their length and solidity, they are peculiarly adapted to the following purposes : Columns or Pilasters of any dimensions, Basement Stories or Fronts of Houses, door or window Cases and Cills [sills], and all other purposes for building, where elegance, strength, and durability are required.

Those unacquainted with the stone, I would recommend to view them in the Cathedral, or the basement story of Mr. W. Lorman's house [William Lorman, merchant, corner of New Church/Lexington and Charles streets - in City Directory 1816; built in 1815, photo],or at other places where they had been used in the city.

The quality of this stone is such, that it alike resists the effects of frost or time, and retains its original colour and beauty without the aid of paint.

Those who are unacquainted with me will please to enquire of Robert Cary Long, James Carey, Elias Ellicott, or Isaac M'Pherson.
BENJAMIN BROWN.

From the Baltimore Federal Gazette, 4 May 1815 in Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register. London: August 26, 1815
Photos of Cathedral and Lorman house from Library of Congress

©2020 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD