Picture This: A Glimpse Into Catonsville’s Storied Past

This wintry photo shows “Orange Grove,” the Patapsco Flouring Mills owned by the C.A. Gambrill Manufacturing Co. of Baltimore, on Jan. 26, 1904. That specific date is noted in a delightful little book, The Orange Grove Story: A View of Maryland Americana in 1900, by Thomas L. Phillips.

Phillips donated an inscribed copy to The Catonsville Room on Aug. 1, 1972.  Because it is considered a reference book, it is available to patrons for one-day loan from the library.

The author knew the area well as his father, Michael Thomas Phillips, was appointed Superintendent of Gambrill Mill “C” at Orange Grove and he himself lived in the Orange Grove for more than a dozen years as a youth. He dedicated his personal reflection to his friend and superintendent of Patapsco State Park, Charles L. Jackson. 

The Patapsco River valley was considered an ideal setting for milling and commercial flour milling can trace its roots to 1774. Readers of this column may recall that the Alberton cotton mill, [Oct. 4, 2011], was another mill that once flourished in the area.

Four days before the photo was taken, the author noted: “On Friday, January 22, 1904, a sudden thaw produced an ice gorge which became massive enough to carry away the swinging bridge.”

Orange Grove was on the Baltimore County side of the Patapsco Rover; the workers’ housing was on the Howard County side and the swinging bridge connected the two. That next week, there was no work and the children got an unexpected holiday from school because of the difficulty in transportation.

The mill burned on May 1, 1905, and was not rebuilt. At the time, it had 35 employees. The company owned a sister mill and general headquarters on Commerce Street in Baltimore that had been destroyed in the “Great Baltimore Fire” that occurred Feb. 7–8, 1904.

An advertisement for the mill in 1884 read as follows: “This mill was built in 1856, when the well known brand of Orange Grove was established. It is a large well built brick building, situated at a very picturesque point on the Patapsco River. In 1873 a Corliss Engine and boilers were added as auxiliary to the water power, and in 1883, the mill was remodeled and changed over to the modern roller system. In the spring of 1884 a substantial storage warehouse was built adjoining the mill.”

The mill, located about equidistant between Ellicott City and Elkridge, had a daily capacity of 1,200 to 1,500 barrels of flour a day in 1900. It was known as the “largest flour mill east of Minneapolis,” producing Gambrill’s two highest-grade flours: “Patapsco Superlative Patent Flour” and “Orange Grove Flour.” 

Phillips, in his book, said that the origin of the name “Orange Grove” has several legends associated with how the company chose it. He believes that the most likely reason is that a flowering tree known as “osage-orange” or “mock orange” grew in profusion. It certainly isn’t because this area once had orange groves.

Lisa Vicari, long-time Catonsville Room volunteer, noted that the present trail in Patapsco State Park, which goes from Avalon to Ilchester, includes a series of well-done explanatory trail markers as well as ruins of the mill itself.

Orange Grove is part of Recreation Area No. 3 and visitors today can walk the pedestrian swinging bridge and recall when its purpose was to link a mill with its workers many decades ago.

Thanks go to Bryce Rumbles, librarian at the Catonsville Branch, and Lisa Vicari, Catonsville Room volunteer and board member, Friends of the Catonsville Library, for their research assistance. Anyone interested in ordering digital reprints of any of the images featured in this series, should contact Bryce Rumbles at brumbles@bcpl.net.