Baltimore S White Marble Steps

Despite the challenge of keeping them white they ornament the face of many rowhomes and city buildings.

Baltimore s white marble steps.

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 marble steps of baltimore rowhomes only a few cities in the northeast part of the country boast these marble steps philadelphia also has them both of my grandmothers homes had marble steps and i remember them scrubbing them to keep them white. In the 19th century most marble for steps and buildings was quarried in baltimore county at sites near texas and cockeysville. White marble steps a trademark of baltimore architecture are a common element among baltimore s rowhouses.

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. While the rowhomes erected were kept affordable for the working class the marble steps offered that touch of class to the otherwise modest home. Countless stone steps in baltimore city md. Petrucci estimates that in the early 1900 s at least 80 of baltimore s stoops were made of white marble.

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. Marble steps became status symbols for baltimorean s in the early 1900 s. 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. Because of their stylish charm and accessibility mr.

Such prominent buildings that exhibit this fancy mineral are. More than most cities this is a city of distinct close knit neighborhoods 237 by one count and few are more distinct than those of southeast baltimore. A 1913 story proclaimed no other city in the country perhaps the world has the universal white marble. Baltimore is known far and wide as the city of white steps the sun reported in 1947.