Burnt Mills Village Cleanup and Restoration

The site of a grist mill that burned down before 1788, Burnt Mills became an important source of clean drinking water for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in 1929 when the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) built a water filtration plant here along the Northwest Branch Anacostia River near Silver Spring, Maryland.

At the time of its construction in 1929, the water filtration plant at Burnt Mills was considered a landmark achievement by chief engineer Robert B. Morse, and reflects public awareness of the importance of managed water systems to public health. The plant's office and pumping station were housed inside two Georgian Revival style houses at 10700 and 10701 Colesville Road (also known as Columbia Pike). A steel and concrete hollow deck, Ambersen-style dam was built across the river. 

The Robert B. Morse Filtration Plant ceased operation in 1962 when it was replaced by water filtration plants on the Patuxent and Potomac Rivers. Its water filtration and pumping facilities were removed, but the two Georgian Revival buildings and the dam remain. A historical marker identifies the location of the filtration plant and the site of the former Bealle's Mill at Burnt Mills.

Among the notable places here is Burnt Mills East Special Park, which provides parking for a section of the Northwest Branch Trail, a 12.9-mile trail that runs from Randolph Road in Wheaton South across Route 29 (Burnt Mills West) to the Prince George's County line. M-NCPPC acquired the 2.6-acre park in 1996.

Burnt Mills is within the service boundary of our fire and water cleanup & restoration company, SERVPRO® of Silver Spring North. In addition to water damage and fire damage restoration, our local SERVPRO® of Silver Spring North also provides mold and biohazards mitigation, as well as residential & commercial cleaning services that include duct & carpet cleaning.

Burnt Mills has a population of 3,592, according to the 2020 census, and is home to a large population Orthodox and Conservative Jews. The Silver Spring Eruv Association includes parts of Burnt Mills/White Oak and the nearby neighborhoods of Kemp Mill and Colesville. Burnt Mills is home to an Orthodox synagogue, the Southeast Hebrew Congregation, originally founded by Orthodox Eastern European immigrants in 1909 on Capitol Hill. Many Jews began to move out of SE Washington in the 1930s and Southeast Hebrew was relocated to White Oak in 1971.