Granite Historic District is a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City of ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It comprises the focus of a rural

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

ing community located in the

Patapsco Valley The Patapsco Valley is a small valley surrounding the Patapsco River in central Maryland. The region is known for its historical significance as a major economic and industrial center in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Geography The Pa ...

of western Baltimore County, Maryland. It includes two churches, a school, a social hall, former commercial buildings, and houses and outbuildings, representing the period from the initial settlement of the area about 1750 through the early 20th century, when the village achieved its present form. The district also includes the former Waltersville quarry, one of two major

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

operations in the region during the period. Granite from the Waltersville and Fox Rock quarries was utilized in construction of the

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

in the 1830s, and later in such projects as the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, old Treasury Building, and parts of the inner walls of the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and numerous other projects in Baltimore city and county. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1994. Granite National Historic District Plaque.jpg , Historic District designation plaque Granite National Historic District Plaque Rock.jpg , Historic District designation plaque on a piece of granite Weller's Quarry PlateXIV Fig1 MD Geological Survey Volume 2.jpg , Weller's Quarry

References

External links

*, at Maryland Historical Trust
Boundary Map of the Granite Historic District, Baltimore County
including photo from 1994, at Maryland Historical Trust Historic districts in Baltimore County, Maryland Victorian architecture in Maryland Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore County, Maryland {{BaltimoreCountyMD-NRHP-stub