Burnt Mills is an

census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...

, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 3,592.

History

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 The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland that provides safe drinking water and sewage treatment, wastewater treatment for Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery and P ...

(WSSC) built a water filtration plant here along the

Northwest Branch Anacostia River Northwest Branch Anacostia River is a free-flowing stream in Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County and Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County, Maryland. It is a tributary of the Anacostia River, which flows to the Pot ...

near

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

. At the time of its construction in 1929, the water filtration plant at Burnt Mills was considered a landmark achievement by Robert B. Morse, chief engineer, and the WSSC, reflecting 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 River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

s. 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. Burnt Mills is home to a large population

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

and

Conservative Jews Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations, more than from divine rev ...

. The Silver Spring Eruv Association includes parts of Burnt Mills / White Oak and the nearby neighborhoods of

Kemp Mill Kemp Mill is a census-designated place and an unincorporated census area in Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is known for its creekside walkways, calm suburban atmosphere, Brookside Gardens, and numero ...

and Colesville. Burnt Mills is home to an Orthodox synagogue, the Southeast Hebrew Congregation. Southeast Hebrew was originally founded by Orthodox

Eastern European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and ...

immigrants in 1909 on

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill is a neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast and Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F S ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Many Jews began to move out of Southeast Washington beginning in the 1930s and Southeast Hebrew was relocated to White Oak in 1971.

Demographics

Burnt Mills first appeared as a

in the 2020 U.S. Census.

2020 census

References

Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Maryland Census-designated places in Montgomery County, Maryland Census-designated places in Maryland Conservative Judaism in Maryland Four Corners, Maryland Jews and Judaism in Silver Spring, Maryland Orthodox Jewish communities Orthodox Judaism in Maryland White Oak, Maryland {{MontgomeryCountyMD-geo-stub