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Photograph taken circa 1920 shows a group of men at work in the MJ 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. In the foreground is Harry Orndoff. Contributed by Anna Wanzer. Courtesy of Stone House Foundation, Stephens City, VA.

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

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

Grove’s business ventures prospered, and in 1875 Grove took his eldest son, William Grove, as a partner in the firm of M. J. Grove & Son. After many successful years, the partnership was replaced in 1889 by a corporation, the M. J. Grove Lime Company, whose board of directors represented the founder and his five sons. Its only plant was located at Lime Kiln, MD., but the first major act of the new company was the purchase of a number of properties that eventually totaled 600 acres southeast of Frederick. This became known as the Frederick Plant and developed into Grove’s most diverse operation. The lime was considered the best on the market for white coatings and finishes. By the 1890s the company was being widely featured in regional business journals.

Original Grove Lime Company kilns, circa 1920. The kilns were strategically located next to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks, one-half mile west of Stephens City, in the former Stephens City train station. Courtesy of Stone House Foundation, Stephens City, VA.

In 1892, the company’s charter was amended to allow its operations beyond the state of Maryland. In 1899, a successful search led by Edward D. Grove discovered an exceptionally beautiful limestone formation along the Baltimore and Ohio railroad near Stephens City, VA. The plant there was to become the company’s second largest plant. The quality of the limestone was excellent and the plant was superbly equipped with the most modern machinery in the industry.

Winchester Star An October 3, 2001 article, “Into the Tunnels of the MJ Grove Lime Co.,” quotes Middletown resident John Holt, who describes in his book “The History of the MJ Grove Lime Company” how Edward Grove chose Stephens City as the site for the company’s next plant.

“When Grove gave the signal, a B&O Railroad engineer stopped the train. Grove got off the train and used a small hammer and chisel to chip boulders from ledges along the tracks between Stephens City and Strasburg. Grove discovered the limestone he was looking for beside the tracks west of Stephens City.”

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

“Grove took the rock sample to a blacksmith in Stephens City and fired it. Grove realized that was it. The limestone in the quarry tested as being 99.5% pure. The usual purity of lime is about 55%. Grove leased seven acres of land next to the railroad tracks from the McLeod family for $100 a year and started Stephens City’s first modern industry.”

By 1902, six kilns were operational. In 1905, MJ Grove purchased the seven acres. By 1910, ten kilns were in operation. Later, the lime company purchased over 100 more acres, the last of which was purchased 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 indicate that 2,000 tons of limestone were mined daily from the Stephens City quarry during World War I. The Stephens City plant struggled to meet the increasing demand for chemical and metallurgical calcium products.

The construction work where the storage tanks received rocks from the crushing plant. Limestone crushers work by applying pressure to the material to crush it. Jaw crushers are the main crushers used in limestone processing. They use compressive force to break the material into smaller pieces. Courtesy of George Scheulen, Sr.

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

In 1938, Stephens City was completely dependent on the MJ Grove Lime Company, as it employed about 175 people (seasonally) and generated an annual payroll of $250,000, most of which was spent in Frederick County. Limestone mining was not affected by the Great Depression, as the product was in demand to support the booming steel mills. During World War II, all production was river rocks for steel production to support the military effort. The company was considered the backbone of the community financially, and thanks to material donations to civic organizations, Boy Scouts, and a future fire department.

Grove Lime Company crusher house, ca. 1917. Quarry stone was ground to size and placed in one of many kilns where it was fired with wood, then coal, and later natural gas to produce lime. Courtesy of Stewart Bell, Jr. Archives Room, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA.

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

Businesses flourished around the early lime kilns. The three-story Stephens City Milling Company, the Shenandoah Vinegar and Cider Company, the Stephens City Cooperage, the Virginia Chemical Company, a blacksmith shop, a grocery store, a barber shop, and several restaurants all flourished here. In the midst of this industrial complex was a one-room schoolhouse.

The tunnel phase of operations began in 1938 and by the 1950s comprised three levels totaling about eight acres of underground space. Three miles of narrow gauge railway led from the depths of the mine to the crushing plant at the bottom of the quarry pit.

Aerial view of the south quarry floor showing one of the three openings to the mine shafts in the west wall of the MJ Grove Quarry when operations were still active. The quarry’s excavated pit was about 18 acres, but the mines extended underground to the railroad and were three levels deep. By the 1950’s, the three levels of mines had sunk 410 feet to the ground, creating a huge underground storage area for water after mining ceased and the quarries were filled with groundwater. It took about 6 months for the south quarry to fill to the brim in 1984 and begin to overflow into Stephens Run. Courtesy of George Scheulen, Sr.

According to former Stephens City Administrator Mike Kehoe (1981-2015), the MJ Grove Lime Company’s office and scales are gone. There is not much left of Stephens City’s largest industry except the old kilns and large holes in the ground. “The MJ Grove Limestone Company buildings once stood on the left side of the road leading out of town at Fairfax Street/Marlboro Road. Part of the property was in town, part was outside the city limits, but the quarry paid taxes to the city because its office was across from the lime plant and right on the city line,” Kehoe said. “I suspect the office building was built sometime in the 1950s, it was a modern brick structure. In 1962, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the city limits as established by city founder Lewis Stephens. I suspect the lime company started paying taxes then. Before 1962, the recognized city boundaries were much smaller,” Kehoe said.

John Holt’s grandfather, John Gossard, was a blacksmith in the lime kiln when MJ Grove used mules and horses to haul the rocks from the mine. His father, Warren Holt, worked there as a welder and blacksmith until 1970, then took a job at Stuart M. Perry’s 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 MJ Grove in 1963, Herman Gossard retired in 1971, and Lewis Gossard worked in the quarry until the plant closed. Holt’s inside knowledge of the family helped him write the history of the MJ Grove Lime Company.

The photo was taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s. It looks like snow, but it was white with lime dust all year round. Courtesy of Stone House Foundation, Stephens City, VA.

The MJ Grove Lime Company operated in Stephens City Station, also called Mudville, for most of the 20th century. The business district was nicknamed Mudville because there were no paved roads and the potholes were filled with water and lined with lime paste, so the dirt roads rarely had a chance to dry completely. As businesses closed and residents moved or died, the lime kiln company bought the properties and demolished the buildings. Anna Stout left the area in 1972, one of the last residents to leave the village. The railroad company closed the station building in May 1974. Quarry operations ceased in the early 1980s because pumping water from the mines was too expensive.

However, the plant continued to produce slaked lime under the ownership of James Bowman. Bowman once sold 6,000 tons of lime per year. According to the Newtown History Center website, the quarry operation closed in September 1988 after being purchased by the Flintkote and later Genstar companies. The processing plant was then operated by the Shen-Valley Lime Corporation and finally closed in 2003.

After the plant closed, there were rumors that the old lime kilns were being considered as a tourist attraction. Perhaps a Shenandoah Valley excursion train on this route could make the lime kilns an interesting and thought-provoking stop. This amazing and historic industrial site may still have a future.