I found my topic!

Washington Monument, Baltimore City.
(Cheryl Miller, 10.06.2009)

I hate writing research papers. Not because of the actual act of doing the research either, it’s because I can never pick a good topic (in my mind at least) and I always end up getting extremely stressed and frustrated before I actually begin the research.

The first day of class, we discussed what characterized Baltimore. I immediately thought of the marble stoops that many row homes adorn. I have heard that homeowners took great pride in their marble steps, and it was somewhat of a tradition to scrub them often.

I was relieved to find out there was enough information out there to actually research this topic, but I was extremely shocked with what I was about to learn. The marble that was used for many of the stoops in Baltimore came from a quarry in Cockeysville which is today known as Beaver Dam. I moved from New Jersey to Cockeysville when I was going on nine years old. I spent many summers swimming in Beaver Dam and never knew that marble stone was extracted from the quarry in the early twentieth century.

The second thing that surprised me was what became of some of that marble. Both Washington Monuments in Baltimore City and Washington D.C. were constructed from the high quality marble, as well as 108 columns of the capitol building in D.C.

I visited the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Tuesday. The librarians in the Maryland room were very helpful. They helped me find books and files of old newspaper articles related to my topic. I registered for a library card and was able to check out a book called “The Baltimore Rowhouse”. I plan on visiting there again next week.

I later found this image and inserted it after I learned how to adjust photos.
(Image courtesy of Google Images and provided by www.citypaper.com)

This whole blogging thing is new to me. I am having some difficulty adjusting the photos to where I want them to be on the page once I upload them, but with practice I will be able to navigate my way around this site with more ease.