Savage Mill

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Savage Mill overlooking the Bollman Truss Bridge, 1970.

The Savage Mill is a historic cotton mill complex which has been turned into a complex of shops and restaurants. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

1 The cotton mill
2 The Christmas village
3 Renovation
4 References

[edit] The cotton mill

The mill was started in the 1820s by Amos Williams and his three brothers. They named it and the town in which it still stands (Savage, Maryland) after John Savage, who lent them the money to start the business. The main product was cotton duck, used for sailcloth and a wide variety of other uses. Power was originally obtained by damming the Little Patuxent River, which runs adjacent to the mill property. In later years steam engines were used. The mill was served by a spur off the Patuxent branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and in the 1870s a Bollman Truss Bridge was moved to the spur. This bridge survives and is the only one of its kind left.

After World War II the demand for canvas dropped considerably, and the mill shut down in 1947. By this time the complex consisted of twelve buildings.

[edit] The Christmas village

After the mill closed it was bought by Harry Heim, who converted it into a Christmas Display Village. It featured live reindeer, a one ring circus, and a miniature train which carried guests to the mill from a parking lot on U.S. Route 1. This business was relatively short lived, and for some years the mill was used for warehousing.

[edit] Renovation

In 1985 the mill reopened as a collection of restaurants, specialty shops, and antique dealers. This has been been expanded over the years to encompass five of the larger buildings in the complex. Plans for the future include renovation of the boiler and wheel buildings in order to allow visitors to view some of the mill machinery. Limited changes were made to the fabric of the buildings, and the original timbers and iron fittings can be seen throughout.