McMillan’s Story
Meeting the Needs of a Growing Capital
To handle population growth and municipal sanitation needs, Congress authorized a formidable engineering project: the construction of Washington's first water treatment facility, a monumental slow sand filtration system. Water would be channeled from the Georgetown Reservoir through the Washington City Tunnel to a tract of land north of the city for purification.
Completed in 1905, the reservoir and filtration plant were named in honor of Senator James McMillan of Michigan, who chaired the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia and supported development of the new water supply facilities. McMillan Park is an integral part of the McMillan Commission’s “Emerald Necklace“ open greenspace strategy for the Nation’s Capital.
The original McMillan Park gardens were designed by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. & Sr. Olmsted Sr. is known as the “father of American landscape architecture, having designed such landmarks as New York’s Central Park. McMillan’s neighbors enjoyed access to much of the park until World War II.
A public health milestone, McMillan’s innovative system of water purification, which relied on sand rather than chemicals, led to the elimination of typhoid epidemics and the reduction of many other communicable diseases in the city.
Subsequent improvements to the city water system were initiated in the 1920s, with the regular use of chlorine as a disinfectant implemented in 1923 at the McMillan filtration plant, and an additional treatment plant completed adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir in 1928. The Dalecarlia facility was further expanded in the 1950s.
In 1985, the slow sand filtration plant at McMillan was replaced with a new rapid sand filter plant. The Department of Interior via the National Park Service offered the site to the District government for free, if it would maintain a substantial portion of the site as park space.
The McMillan Park Committee (a citizen-based group of the surrounding neighborhoods) along with The National Trust for Historic Preservation, filed a federal lawsuit and received a federal injunction blocking development on the site in 1990. Subsequently, the McMillan Park Committee nominated the site as a D.C. and National landmark.
McMillan has been recommended for designation as National Historic Site by the D.C. Historic Preservation Board and supported by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Sadly, this national treasure is now listed on the DC Preservation League's "Most Endangered" list.
