M.J. Grove Lime Company was Stephens City’s First Modern Industry

The photograph taken around 1920, features a group of men at work at the M.J. Grove lime kiln. From left to right are (first row) Edmund Robinson (lived in town on Water Street), John Shuldo Sr., and Andrew Wanzer. (second row) Cliff Washington, Tom Brown, and Sul Minifield. Seated in the foreground is Harry Orndoff. Contributed by Anna Wanzer. Courtesy Stone House Foundation, Stephens City, VA.

Manassas Jacob Grove was a leading producer of lime in Frederick County, Maryland, and was the founder of the M.J. Grove & Son and the M.J. Grove Lime Company.

The M.J. Grove Lime Company was one of the largest and most successful companies of its type in the United States. It was founded in 1858 by Manassas J. Grove who was sole owner. He purchased substantial limestone deposits, and began manufacturing lime along the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, five miles south of Frederick MD., which became the village of Lime Kiln.

Grove’s business venture flourished, and in 1875, Grove accepted his oldest son, William Grove, as a partner in the organization called M.J. Grove & Son. After many years of success, the partnership was succeeded by a corporation, M.J. Grove Lime Company in 1889 with the board representing the founder and his five sons. Their only plant was located at Lime Kiln, MD., but the new corporation’s first important act was to purchase a series of tracts, eventually totaling 600 acres, southeast of Frederick. This became known as the Frederick Plant, which became the most diversified of the Grove operations. The lime was considered the finest in the market for white coating and finishing. During the 1890s, the business was accorded substantial mention in regional business journals.

Grove Lime Company original kilns, circa 1920. The kilns were strategically located beside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks one half mile west of Stephens City in what was Stephens City Station. Courtesy Stone House Foundation, Stephens City, VA.

In 1892, the company’s charter was amended to permit its activities beyond the state of Maryland. A successful search headed by Edward D. Grove, discovered an extraordinary fine limestone formation along the Baltimore and Ohio railroad tracks near Stephens City, VA. in 1899. The facility there would become the company’s second largest plant. The quality of limestone was excellent and the facility splendidly equipped with the most up-to-date machinery in the industry.

Winchester Star article, “Into the Tunnels of the M. J. Grove Lime Co., dated October 3, 2001, cites that Middletown resident, John Holt, who wrote, “The History of the M.J. Grove Lime Company,” describes how Edward Grove chose Stephens City for the company’s next plant site.

“When Grove gave the signal, a B&O Railroad engineer stopped the train. Grove would step off the train and with a small hammer and chisel, knock pieces of rock from stone outcroppings along the tracks between Stephens City and Strasburg. Grove discovered the limestone he was looking for besides the tracks west of Stephens City.”

Grove Lime Company cooperage workers. Lime was shipped in barrels, circa early 1900s. No persons identified. Courtesy Stewart Bell, Jr. Archives Room, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA.

“Grove took the rock sample to a Stephens City blacksmith and burned it. Grove realized that this was it. The limestone at the quarry would test 99.5% pure lime. The usual purity lime percentage is about 55%. Grove leased seven acres beside the tracks from the McLeod family for $100 a year and established Stephens City’s first modern industry.”

In 1902, six kilns were ready for operation. In 1905, M.J. Grove purchased the seven acres. There were ten kilns operating by 1910. Later the lime company would purchase over 100 additional acres, the last of which was acquired in 1956.

By 1912, the original deposit at Lime Kiln, MD, was nearly exhausted and lime production had to be divided between the Stephens City and Frederick plants. Records reflect that 2,000 tons of limestone were removed from the Stephens City quarry each day during World War I. The Stephens City plant was hard pressed to meet the growing demand for chemical and metallurgical grades of calcium products.

The building operations where holding tanks received stone from the crusher plant. Limestone crushers work by applying pressure to the material to reduce it in size. Jaw crushers are the primary crusher used in limestone processing. They use compressive force to break the material into smaller pieces. Courtesy George Scheulen, Sr.

In 1937, a deposit of high-quality limestone was located on farmland near Middletown, VA. 450 acres were acquired with enormous reserves of limestone. In 1938, A quarry and rock crushing plant was opened with limited production in 1939, and by 1958, the plant was fully equipped to produce a variety of stone products.

In 1938, Stephens City was entirely dependent on M.J. Grove Lime company because it employed approximately 175 people (in season) with an annual payroll of $250,000, the greater part of which was spent in Frederick County. Mining the limestone was not impacted by the Great Depression era because the product was in demand to support booming steel mills. During World War II, the entire production consisted of fluxing stone to make steel in support of the military effort. The company was considered the backbone of the community from a financial perspective, and from donations of material support to civic organizations, boy scouts, and a future fire department.

Grove Lime Company crusher house, circa 1917. The quarried stone was ground to size and placed in one of the many kilns where it was burned down with wood, then coal, and later with natural gas to create lime. Courtesy Stewart Bell, Jr. Archives Room, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA.

At that time, the Stevens City Plant marketed a high calcium lime for all purposes, agricultural, spray building and chemical lime in either hydrate form or freshly burned. Pulverized agricultural limestone was also featured as well as crushed stone for building or road construction. The quarry of the M.J. Grove Lime Company covered approximately 18 acres of ground, the maximum depth of which was 140 feet. The lime kilns and other buildings covered another 6 acres and represented an investment of more than a half million dollars.

Businesses flourished around the early lime kiln operations. The three-story Stephens City Milling Company, the Shenandoah Vinegar and Cider Company, Stephens City Cooperage, Virginia Chemical Company, a blacksmith shop, grocery store, barber shop and several restaurants all blossomed here. A one room school house sat in the middle of this industrial complex.

The tunnel phase of the operation began in 1938 and by the 1950s would comprise three levels that totaled about eight acres of underground area. Three miles of narrow- gauge track led from the depths of the mine to the crushing plant on the floor of the quarry pit.

Aerial view of the floor of the south quarry showing one of the three openings to the mine shafts in the west wall of the M.J. Grove quarry while operations were still active. The excavated pit of the quarry was about 18 acres, but the mines continued underground to the railroad track and were three levels deep. By the 1950s, the three level of mines descended 410 feet to the bottom, creating a huge underground storage area for water once the mining operations ceased and the quarries filled with ground water. It took about 6 months for the South Quarry to fill to the brim in 1984 and begin overflowing into Stephens Run. Courtesy George Scheulen, Sr.

According to former Stephens City town manager, Mike Kehoe (1981-2015), the M.J. Grove Lime Company office and scales are now gone, not much at all left of Stephens City’s largest industry except the old kilns and big holes in the ground. “The M.J. Grove Limestone Company buildings once stood on the left side of the road going out of town on Fairfax Street/Marlboro Road. Part of the property was in the town and part was outside the corporate limits, but the quarry paid taxes to the town as their office was opposite the lime plant and sat right on the corporate line,” said Kehoe. “I suppose the office building was built sometime in the 1950s, it was a modern brick building. In 1962 the Virginia State Supreme Court confirmed the town’s corporate limits as laid out by town founder Lewis Stephens. I imagine that is when the lime company would have begun paying taxes. The recognized town limits were much smaller before 1962,” Kehoe said.

John Holt’s grandfather, John Gossard was a blacksmith at the lime kiln when M.J. Grove used mules and horses to bring the stone up out of the mine. His father Warren Holt worked there as a welder and blacksmith until 1970, then took employment at Stuart M. Perry rock quarry. His great uncle Herman Gossard was a blacksmith, welder, and electrician, and his son Lewis Gossard (Holt’s cousin), followed his father into the business. John Gossard retired from M.J. Grove in 1963, Herman Gossard retired in 1971, and Lewis Gossard worked the quarry until the plant closed. Holt’s insider family knowledge assisted him in writing the History of the M.J. Grove Lime Company.

The photograph was taken in the late 50’s or early 60’s. It appears to be winter from what looks like snow but it was always white year-round from lime dust. Courtesy Stone House Foundation, Stephens City, VA.

The M. J. Grove Lime Company would continue to operate in Stephens City Station, aka Mudville, through most of the twentieth century. The business district was nicked-named Mudville, due to the lack of hard surface roads and water filled potholes lined with lime paste which seldom allowed the dirt streets to completely dry. As businesses closed and residents moved or passed away, The Lime Kiln operation bought the properties and demolished the buildings. Anna Stout, left the area in 1972, one of the last residents to depart the village. The railway agency closed the station building in May 1974. The quarry operation was suspended in the early 1980s due to the high cost of pumping water from the mines.

However, the plant continued to produce hydrated lime under the ownership of James Bowman. At one time Bowman sold 6,000 tons of lime a year. According to the Newtown History Center website, the quarrying operation would close in September of 1988 after being bought out by the Flintkote and then Genstar Companies. The processing plant was then operated by the Shen-Valley Lime Corporation and would finally close in 2003.

After the plant closure, there were rumors of the old lime kilns being considered as a tourist attraction.  Perhaps a Shenandoah Valley excursion train on that track could make the lime kilns an interesting and thought-provoking stop. There may still be a future for this amazing and historical industrial site.