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