Wootton's Mill stood near Watts Branch stream on land where a log miller's house had been built by Richard Wootton in the 1790s on property once owned by his father, Dr. Thomas Sprigg Wootton. The gristmill was constructed and began operations in 1821 as a small local or custom mill, powered by an overshot wheel turned by water brought through a millrace from the mill pond, and it ground grain for the Wootton family and, for a toll, for their neighbors. In 1848, Turner and Olivia C. Wootton separated ownership of the mill from the miller's house by selling 229 acres and the dwelling to Chandler Keys while reserving access to the family burial ground and stream privileges. According to the 1850 census, the mill and its cabin were leased to miller Benjamin Sparrow, a 41-year-old Marylander who lived there with his large family, and records place another miller, Salathiel Mullican, there sometime after Sparrow and before 1905. In 1905, the property became the country retreat of Smithsonian artist, topographer, and curator William Henry Holmes. The saw and gristmill continued operating until about 1919, when the property was sold to Charles Veirs. The surviving millstones, later donated by the Veirs family, were used to grind grain as the bedstone was turned by the waterwheel, and a wood hoist or lift adjusted the height of the runnerstone, lifted it from the bedstone, and allowed the stones to be serviced.