Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 23% of U.S. towns · #168 of 261 in Maryland. What drives it
Most of Burnt Mills was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1962. Below: maps from 1908 on.
The Burnt Mills post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 23% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Burnt Mills is more historic than 23% of U.S. towns, #168 of 261 in Maryland. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Maryland towns list much on the Register (a typical Maryland town has 0.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Burnt Mills’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (20% of Maryland towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Burnt Mills’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Burnt Mills. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Burnt Mills.
Burnt Mills had its own post office from 1855 to 1904.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Burnt Mills.
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.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Burnt Mills itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Burnt Mills post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Burnt Mills is more historic than 23% of U.S. towns, #168 of 261 in Maryland. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
7% of Burnt Mills’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 3.3% for a Maryland town; the median home was built in 1962.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
