Seneca Quarry Comes to Life

You may have seen a Patch article on January 8 about a giant sycamore tree that fell on the Seneca stonecutting mill. While that may not warrant much attention - trees fall all the time, don't they? - the decaying building it fell on is a one-of-a-kind structure, the building where they cut the stone for the Smithsonian Castle and hundreds of buildings around the Washington region. 

For the past year, I've been researching the first-ever history of the Seneca quarry, a largely unknown gem of Montgomery County history. I'm proud to say that that book, The Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry, has now been published. My publisher, The History Press, and I wanted to publish the book in time for Black History Month in February, as so many emancipated men worked at the quarry after the Civil War - and there's strong indication that slaves worked there before the war. Thanks to the Montgomery County Historical Society, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the Sugarland Ethno History Project and the C&O Canal, we've gathered a treasure trove of photos showing the quarry in action, many of them showing the faces of African Americans. The book is illustrated with a map of the quarry area and 80 images - including 30 color photographs. 

Although the quarry sits right along the C&O Canal near Seneca Aqueduct, most people bike or hike right past without noticing it: the quarry is covered with impenetrable forest and thick brush. Winter is the ideal time to visit, when the quarry is actually accessible. It's an impressive site: along this one-mile stretch of the Potomac there were numerous redstone quarries, worked by the Peter family of Georgetown until 1866. Visitors can see the 1853 fence piers from Lafayette Square that were dropped off at the quarry in 1999, then venture into the quarry and see the visible remains of chisel and iron rod marks, steel anchors for the numerous derricks, and the restored quarry master's house that still stands above. 

Just to the west is the Bull Run quarry, where quarry owner John P.C. Peter dug the stone for the Smithsonian Castle. He won the contract to supply redstone for the Castle, then died in January 1848 of lockjaw less than a year into the project. The Kiplinger family now owns Peter's nearby home, Montevideo, and has beautifully restored it. 

The Seneca Sandstone Company purchased the quarry after the Civil War. It was a financially mismanaged and undercapitalized company that had attempted to influence peddle by selling stock to senior Republicans for half price - including to Ulysses S. Grant. When it went bankrupt in 1876, the Seneca quarry helped bring down the Freedman's Bank. This forgotten chapter in American history became known as the Seneca Stone Ring Scandal, a scandal that none of Grant's biographers covered before. 

I've often wondered why we don't have a visitor park in the Seneca quarry, and I advocate for such a park in the book. It would be a fine addition to Montgomery County. Fortunately the land is preserved: the quarry itself sits within the boundaries of the C&O Canal National Historical Park, while the stonecutting mill and quarry master's house are part of Seneca Creek State Park. A visitor park would straddle both. It could include interpretive signs, a hiking trail, stabilization of the stonecutting mill, and restoration of the Seneca Aqueduct. It would be a year-round destination to explore our history. 

Interested in seeing Seneca quarry? I'm leading free public tours on February 16 at 11am and March 2 at 1pm. The latter features a book signing and reception at Rocklands Farm nearby, a lovely 1870s Seneca redstone mansion. You can follow the book on Facebook, learn about upcoming events, and see an amazing array of images from Seneca quarry.