Past Presentations
2024
November 19, 2024: John Brantley delivered a presentation entitled “East Lothian: The Second Most Important Tract of Ground in Granite”. It’s the story of how 1200 acres lying between Old Court Road and the river, originally the property of William Hamilton, evolved into the home of the Woodstock College, Granite Church, St Alphonsus Church, both the old one and the new one, the Mathena Farm, the Quarry Farm, the Pahl Farm, Little Flower School and what John calls “the first attempt at a housing development in Granite history”.
October 15, 2024: Jamie Condon shared on the history of the Sylvan Dell Pool.
2023
February 28, 2023 John Brantley, GHS Treasurer: The Civil War Era in Granite and Woodstock. John Brantley spoke and shared a number of research materials pertaining to the Civil War Era in Granite and Woodstock.
April 18, 2023: Shirley Supik spoke on The Emmart Pierpont Safe House, a local house that offered safe harbor to people escaping slavery.
June 20, 2023: Ed Johnson of the Patapsco Heritage Greenway Project shared on the history of the Patapsco State Park.
September 19, 2023: Robert Mosko shared on cemetery maintenance and restoration.
2022
January 18, 2022 John Brantley, GHS Treasurer “The Woodstock Bus Line”
The bus line was operated by Walter Vernon Trail and later by his son, Hodges Trail, from 1916 until 1970, and through research it’s been established that this was the very first licensed bus service established in Maryland. The presentation focused on how and why the bus line came into being, how the Woodstock Line was integrated into first, the Baltimore Streetcar System, and later, Baltimore Transit Bus System, and offers up some memories of those of us old enough and fortunate enough to have experienced riding the bus. See a recording of this talk here.
March 15 2022 James Keffer, Executive Director of The Historical Society of Baltimore County, presented on some of their activities which included current public programs, history journal, research library and files, museum exhibits, and collection and archives. They currently have a new exhibit, Voices & Votes: Democracy in America.
May 17, 2022
Tom Reed, Granite resident, spoke on the renovation and preservation activities at the Nike Missile Site.
July 19, 2022
Merlowe Henry, Granite resident, spoke on Maryland bee keeping.
September 20, 2022
Jason Tanner, Granite resident, spoke about his metal detecting adventures in Granite and shared some pieces of tangible local history he has found.
November 15, 2022
John Brantley, Granite resident, (tentatively) will speak on the various stores that used to be all around the Granite area.
