Lock Keeper's House, Seventeenth Street & Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

1994 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Entry

Significance: The lockkeeper's house at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue served the lock that connected the Washington branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to the Washington City Canal that crossed the capital city parallel to the national mall. The city canal suffered problems from its inception and ultimately became an open sewer. The C&O Canal entailed enormous national investment but fell victim to labor riots, floods, pestilence, right-of-way disputes, and finally competition of railroads. The result was the filling-in of the Washington branch of the C&O Canal and the Washington city canal, leaving the lock keeper's house removed from its purpose. The house was further isolated from the river with a major landfill and reclamation project at the turn of the twentieth century that created Potomac Park, the site of the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool. The house served for a time as a squatters' tenement, and later for the U.S. Park Police with a holding cell. After World War II, the house became a comfort station but was later abandoned except for some use as storage for groundskeepers. Few visitors to the park can visualize the historic scene of canal barges passing by the foot of the ellipse and docking at the wharf that once extended to the south of the house, nor the image of the Potomac river extending nearly to the base of the Washington Monument. The lock keeper's house stands as testimony to the is dramatic and eventful past. In 2016-17, the lock keeper's house was moved slightly away from the lanes of traffic and rehabilitated as a visitor center for the National Mall and Memorial Parks.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N153

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2177

Survey number: HABS DC-36

Building/structure dates: 1837 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1903 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1915-1916 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 2004 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: ca. 1940 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 2016-2017 Subsequent Work

National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 73000218

houses washington city lock keeper lock keeper house seventeenth seventeenth street constitution constitution avenue northwest washington dc district of columbia domestic life canals shipping concrete foundations gneiss sandstone locks hydraulic facilities lockkeepers houses ashlar dormers ron batterson albert s burns california polytechnic state university thomas carbery chesapeake and ohio canal company justine christianson cluss and kammerhueber todd croteau paul davidson historic american buildings survey kate kasparek national mall and memorial parks frederick d owen ryan pierce benjamin severson smithsonian board of regents christopher m stevens us army corps of engineers us park police washington canal company steven d wynn j young photo lock keeper house architecture railroad railroad architecture architectural diagrams floor layout architectural plan library of congress building plans national register of historic places lincoln memorial washington monument historic landmarks

1940

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html