A Colorful Past

A Colorful Past. Maryland Miletsones. , Today's Campus Drive, once known as Paint Branch Parkway, was previously named for the nearby "Paint Branch," a seventeen mile long tributary of the Anacostia River. The Parkway was built to replace Calvert Road which ran from Baltimore Avenue to Edmonston Road (today's Kenilworth Avenue). The reason for the name Paint Branch is unclear., Archaeologists have found evidence of Native American settlements from the Anacostan tribe along the river banks dating to 1,000 B.C. Along with tools and other objects, they found that the river's colorful clays were used by these early inhabitants as ceremonial paints., From the early 1700s to the 1900s, the power of water running downhill to the Anacostia River was harnessed to provide power to a number of thriving mills. These mills ground corn, sawed lumber, and finished local woo for making cloth. One mill, Fawcett's Woolen Mill, near Fairland Road, operated in the mid-19th century. The dyes used to color the wool were released into the river, coloring, or "painting" the waters. The remains of some of these mills can still be seen today along the river banks., In July 2016, Paint Branch Parkway was renamed to Campus Drive to provide continuity and wayfinding along a major thoroughfare through the University of Maryland.,

Now, as to the origin of the name "Paint branch"…near the junction of Little Paint branch and Big Paint branch…are conspicuous deposits of red clay and there is also some blue clay. It has been used as paint, or as the coloring matter of paint, from immemorial times…shipments were made up to about ten years ago and that very recently a man in Branchville painted his barn with this clay… , The Rambler, The Washington Evening Star, November 22, 1914