Port Deposit's history began in the 17th Century, when the Lords Baltimore granted land patents for the upper Chesapeake Bay above its confluence with the Susquehanna River. By around 1800, timber rafts called arks regularly carried cargo downriver to wharves where goods were transferred to trading ships on the Bay. The area had several names until 1813, when the State of Maryland officially named it Port Deposit in recognition of its importance to trade. Its prosperity is reflected in numerous architecturally significant buildings, many built with Port Deposit granite, first quarried about 1820 and used in the Miranda E. Bunch Memorial Fountain and other structures.