Picture This: A Glimpse Into Catonsville’s Storied Past

Time was when mills that depended upon water as their primary source of power dotted the landscape. Entire towns sprung up around these mills. Such it was with Alberton, 550 acres nestled in the wooded hills straddling Howard and Baltimore counties, about three miles north of Ellicott City.

But the town’s history can be traced to 1840 when Thomas Ely and his four brothers first built a mill. Then, it was known as Elysville. The town’s name changed as subsequent owners took over the mill’s operation. When James S. Gary & Son, Inc. took ownership in 1853 the town was named Alberton for an early investor, Jacob Albert.

The son, James Albert Gary, and his family, which included one son and seven daughters, lived at Linden Avenue and Dolphin Street in Baltimore but maintained a country home in Catonsville, known as “The Summit.” It was listed on the Register of Historic Places in 1979. Today, Summit Avenue, situated across Frederick Road from the old estate, is named in his honor. Stanley Drive, on the south side of Frederick Road, is named for his only son.

Following his father’s death in 1870, James Albert Gary became involved in politics, with two unsuccessful bids for Congress and governor of Maryland. Nevertheless, he wielded keen fund-raising abilities that led to his appointment as Postmaster General for President McKinley and to leadership of the Maryland Republican party.

In the photo, Ellicott City attorney James Clark, who introduced the auction, is visible above the crowd just right of center in middle ground. Although the public auctioneer, Charlie Hobbs, expected the sale to elicit a higher price, the community of Alberton was sold to the sole bidder on Nov. 23, 1940—lock, stock and barrel to C.R. Daniels Company for the sum of $65,000.

For that money, the company received “a three-and-a-half-story mill, a concrete dam over the Patapsco River, 118 homes and 550 acres of land.  It also bought a water-system, private roads, a bridge, two churches and a general store,” reported the Baltimore Sun, on Nov. 24, 1940.

The mill, according to the notice of sale, gives employment to an average of 250 persons, most of them residents of the village. 

The three-and-a-half-story mill was built of gray granite that was quarried near the site. A handsome structure, its ivy-covered walls and bell tower belied its everyday function as a producer of cotton duck material, largely for use by the government.

“From the slopes to the south, Alberton spreads out in reds and greens like a toy village, with the gray mill and two stone churches with slate roofs and steeples in contrast,” according to a lengthy story in The Sun in advance of the auction.

If you were to go in search of the mill or the community today, there is little evidence that it ever existed. In 1972, tropical storm Agnes wreaked havoc on much of the town, as it did to many other surrounding areas in its path.

Five years later, it was fire that ravaged the mill. As reported in The Sun on Sept. 18, 1977:  “More than 15 buildings of the old Daniels textile mill in Howard county were destroyed early yesterday by a fire that raged out of control for nearly five hours.”

The newspaper account of the fire noted that the mill had recently been purchased “… by new owners who planned its renovation, primarily for warehousing and light manufacturing purposes.”

Those plans went up in flames that fateful day. 

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.