About the place:
Taken from the NRHP nomination form, "An alley separates the bank from the Wade H.D. Warfield building, constructed in 1906; it has a first-story facade of rusticated granite, with buff brick above. Each upper story has a broad 3-part window with a splayed brick arch with granite keystone and impost blocks. The building is capped by a modillioned cornice of pressed metal."
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About the person:
Taken from the website, "Wade H. D. Warfield, one of Carroll County’s most representative citizens. A captain of industry and a man of great business foresight. The owner of a town embracing a wealth of mineral deposits.
Sykesville. Branches at Morgan and Marriottsville.
Few men stop to think that most men who are considered great are men who have manifested their powers in the work of destruction mostly to the detriment of progress and that the woodman who has built himself a hut in advancing civilization has done greater work than many who are lauded as heroes. Construction is usually slow and the pioneers in any field of constructive activity must necessarily pass through many vicisitudes. In giving credit, no principle is more frequently ignored.
In 1889 began a new era in the commercial history of Sykesville. New life and activity seemed to spring into existence from the inception of the aggressive business policy adopted by Mr. Wade H. D. Warfield and Company. To no small degree is the prestige held by Sykesville as a prosperous and thriving trade center attributable to the alertness and keen foresight this firm has exercised in anticipating the needs of the community in the most important articles of merchandise secured at the sources of supply in quantities sufficient to secure the lowest prices and the lowest rates of transportation thereby enabling them to offer the best market condition found anywhere in the state. This has added greatly in giving Sykesville the independent standing she now enjoys as a trading point.
Wade H. D. Warfield & Co. carry a complete line of builders’ hardware, mechanics’ and gardeners’ tools, paints, oils, varnishes, brushes, heavy hardware, blacksmith’s supplies and scores of innumerable articles found in a thoroughly equipped store that has been supplying the needs of a large community for nearly a quarter of a century.
The lumber yard is among the largest in the State and carries rough and dressed lumber and building materials including mill work of every description. Brick, tile, sewer pipe, cement, and lime form a complete stock. Hard and soft coal from the best mines is bought and stored in bins of sufficient size to guarantee a constant supply.
Wade H. D. Warfield & Co. are wholesale as well as retail dealers in grains, feeds, hay and straw, buying and selling at current market prices, thus maintaining a home market for the farmers of this section of the State for the sale of their commodities where they receive the most liberal and fairest treatment.
This concern does an immense business in the sale and distribution of Warfield’s wheat and grass mixture, a plant food of the very best soil enriching qualities which in aggregate sales amount to many hundred tons annually.
Three years ago this company built their substantial and attractive brick store, which was designed to meet established needs. It is three stories with plate glass front, thus giving an opportunity for fine window displays. The storeroom is neatly arranged and provided with carefully labeled compartments reaching from the floor the ceiling, the upper portions of which are reached from a gallery which is also used for display of stock. The store contains general and private offices and the building is equipped with an elevator, is heated by steam and lighted by acetylene, which rivals sunlight in its intensity, thus making one of the most attractive stores in the State.
In the equipment and facilities for saving time and expense, the lumber yard of this company is not surpassed anywhere. A private switch from the B. & O. railroad enables them to unload lumber with little effort and to dump the coal directly into the bins and to load the distributing wagons from the bins with very slight labor, thus offering market conditions that challenge the most aggressive competition. This is one of the secrets of Sykesville’s prestige as a trade centre.
The progress the company has made with each year of its experience was creditably exemplified last year in the construction of a large elevator and flouring mill which offers a market for wheat in any quantity, second to none in the country. This mill has a capacity of more than 100 barrels per day of “Cook’s Delight,” a flour that is already a household word for many miles from Sykesville.
Mr. Wade H. D. Warfield, the founder and manager of this enterprise, is among the youngest of Carroll county’s representative business men and has won his way to the front ranks of the strongest and most enterprising men of the State. Not long ago Mr. Warfield bought the entire town of Marriottsville with its rich mineral deposits along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Here the best of limestone, (calcium carbonate) is found in deposits that would seem inexhaustible. Limestone is becoming more valuable every year as the demand for road metal, lime, and crushed stone for concrete increase and the sources of supply diminish. With the excellent railroad facilities and its accessibility this is a valuable piece of property.
A number of houses, a store, and a postoffice and R. R. express office forming a small town, are all owned by Mr. Warfield.
Mr. Warfield is one of the State’s most public spirited citizens and he does not hesitate to devote his best mental efforts to the commonweal. He has served his own town a number of terms as councilman and has been elected chief executive three times. His popularity was expressed in the tribute paid him by the voters who cast 116 out of 125 votes for him at his last election. Under his administration municipal affairs felt the same impulse that has characterized all of Mr. Warfield’s enterprises, and to him belongs great credit for Sykesville’s fame as a hustling business centre. He also deserves much credit for what he has done for the advancement of Southern Carroll and the Northern part of Howard County.
Mr. Warfield is a relative of ex-Governor Warfield, who is known as one of the best governors Maryland ever had. Mr. Warfield is president of the Sykesville National Bank, a member of the National Hay Association and the State Live Stock Sanitary Board. Though still young in years, Mr. Warfield has led a busy life and no one is better equipped than he for the work of making Carroll county the leader of the State in constructive mentality as well as commerce."
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