Beaver Dam (Maryland)
Beaver Dam is a former marble quarry in Cockeysville, Maryland, that was a source of stone for many notable buildings in the United States, including the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument.[1][2] Flooded since the 1930s, the site is now a local swimming and recreational club. While there were dozens of small, abandoned quarries with various owners in the area — collectively known as the "Beaver Dam quarries" — the large quarry pit that is now a lake was the principal one.[1][3] It has been called Maryland's "most celebrated building-stone quarry."[2]
The quarries began around 1800 with mostly Irish immigrants employing hand drills, hammers and chisels.[4] Stone was loaded onto wagons and pulled by oxen to the nearby Northern Central Railway in Cockeysville, until the quarry site itself was connected to the rail line in 1866.[citation needed] In 1878, Hugh Sisson ("Marble King of Baltimore"), acquired the property and other surrounding quarries and began using the latest technology: steam powered derricks, shovels, and diamond bit drills.[1] Starting in 1880, a stone-cutting plant was adjacent to the quarry itself.[5]
The dolomitic marble is known to geologists as Cockeysville Marble. It was considered some of the finest quality in the world according to government experts.[1] Benjamin Latrobe ranked the Cockeysville stone over Italian Carrara marble.[2] With the popularity of Greek Revival buildings in the 19th century, white marble became highly desirable.[2]
Major architectural projects that used monolithic marble directly sourced from the Beaver Dam quarry include the United States Capitol's 108 large columns, each 26 feet in length, on the wings of the capitol completed in 1868; the Washington Monument's upper 390 feet; Baltimore City Hall (exterior); the Russell Senate Office Building in DC; the Maryland State House in Annapolis (exterior columns); monolithic columns were manufactured for the Baltimore Courthouse and completed in 1900 they were the largest columns in America at the time; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York; and the Fisher Building in Detroit, at the time in 1929 the largest marble contract ever made.[2][5] For many other notable buildings, the stone is only identified as being "Cockeysville Marble" or coming from Baltimore County (Hannibal 2020 for a comprehensive list). While the specific quarry is unknown in these cases, it could have come from the Beaver Dam quarry.[2] Marble was also used in countless homes, business and cemeteries, including Baltimore's iconic rowhouse marble steps.[2]
About a half mile south lies Texas Quarry, a large active quarry operated by Martin Marietta.[2] It is located in the former town of Texas, Maryland, which later merged into Cockeysville.[2] Texas Quarry is of a similar age to the Beaver Dam quarries and was also a major producer of building marble. Its most notable use was for the Washington Monument, where a visible difference in the stone reveals the two quarries' distinct contributions. The whiter marble of the monument's bottom 152 feet came from Texas Quarry, while the warmer-toned marble of the next 390 feet is from Beaver Dam quarry.[2] Today, Texas Quarry primarily produces aggregates such as gravel.[2]
The Beaver Dam quarry was inundated by a natural inflow of water, exceeding 100,000 gallons a day, which required considerable pumping to keep the site operational.[5] When the quarry business declined around the time of the Great Depression, the owners stopped pumping. To generate new revenue from the property, they allowed the quarry pit to fill with water and repurposed the site as a swim club.[5] Today, the 30-acre Beaver Dam Swim Club occupies the former quarry. The 40-foot-deep quarry-lake features floating platforms, rolling logs, diving boards, and a rope swing.[6] The club also includes two swimming pools, a volleyball court, and picnic areas. Beaver Dam Run goes through the property on its way to the Loch Raven Reservoir;[7] it flows eastward alongside the spring-fed lake,[6] which drains into it.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Williams, George Huntington (1892). Guide to Baltimore with an account of the geology of its environs. J. Murphy & co. pp. 101–102.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Hannibal, Joseph T. (June 22, 2020). "Cockeysville marble: a heritage stone from Maryland, USA". Geological Society. 486: 229–249.
- ^ Clark, William Bullock (1898). Maryland Geological Survey. Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^ McCausland, Christianna (2008-06-13), "Taking the Plunge", Baltimore Style, retrieved 2011-06-13
- ^ a b c d Purdum, William D. (March 5, 1940). "The History of the Marble Quarries in Baltimore County, Maryland".
- ^ a b McCarthy, Ellen (2008-07-18), "Beaver Dam Swimming Club Review", The Washington Post, archived from the original on 2012-11-12, retrieved 2011-06-13
- ^ "Loch Raven South, Watershed SWAP report, Volume 2, Appendix E" (PDF). Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Safety. December 2018. Retrieved 2025-08-01.