Baltimore S White Marble Steps

Because of their stylish charm and accessibility mr.

Baltimore s white marble steps.

Baltimore is known far and wide as the city of white steps the sun reported in 1947. Beaver dam is estimated to have supplied 60 of the city s marble steps but local builders also purchased stone from georgia alabama vermont and pennsylvania. In the 19th century most marble for steps and buildings was quarried in baltimore county at sites near texas and cockeysville. It was among the purest whitest marble ever mined in the united states and was the first used for the city s marble steps and for monuments to george washington in baltimore and washington.

The use of marble for steps is due to the presence of high quality white marble in cockeysville a town 17 miles north of baltimore s inner harbor by highway. Upon their installation in the 1900 s white marble steps were felt to add an instant element of class and swankiness to otherwise working class homes. Clustered around the green hills of. Marble steps became status symbols for baltimorean s in the early 1900 s.

While the rowhomes erected were kept affordable for the working class the marble steps offered that touch of class to the otherwise modest home. Such prominent buildings that exhibit this fancy mineral are. And they paint scenes on the door screens too in baltimore md. A 1913 story proclaimed no other city in the country perhaps the world has the universal white marble.

The marble found there is of such quality that it was preferred over the products of the much closer potomac marble quarries for many public structures in washington d c including the. Countless stone steps in baltimore city md. Despite the challenge of keeping them white they ornament the face of many rowhomes and city buildings. White marble steps a trademark of baltimore architecture are a common element among baltimore s rowhouses.