 Indeed, the marble found there is so attractive, stone was hauled all the way from this northern Maryland town to the nation's new capital, instead of local Potomac marble quarries, for use in decorative construction around Washington, D.C., including the Washington Monument, and 108 columns of the capitol building.During the construction phase of the Washington Monument, that is through the middle of the 19th century, the marble gained in popularity as a decorative stone and was used omnipresently for the steps of row houses surrounding Baltimore's inner harbor and in Fells Point.Scrubbing marble steps has become a tradition in Baltimore.