Pennyfield Lock: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, National Park Service

Earley, Judith

Pennyfield Lock (Lock 22) is one of 74 lift locks built along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It is located at the lower end of the 184.5 mi. canal, 20 mi. beyond the beginning point in Georgetown. The lock is part of the “rewatered” section running between Georgetown and Violette’s Lock (Lock 23). Red sandstone from the Seneca quarry, was used to build this part of the canal, including the section at Pennyfield Lock. The C&O Canal was acquired by the federal government in 1938, and was designated as the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in 1971. The C&O Canal National Historical Park was listed as an historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The boundaries of the historic district are the same as the park’s. Pennyfield Lock, an approximate 35-acre site, is composed of about 10 acres that were canal property, about 22 acres of buffer, and another several acres of sediment added onto the riverbank by the forces of the river. The term “lock” means all of the features of the canal associated with a particular lock. It applied to the area that surrounded the lock, its bypass flume, waste weir, prism (the canal waterway and towpath), a lockhouse, culverts to carry streams under the canal, an aquduct, stores, sheds, warehouses, and wharves. Pennyfield Lock had all of these except an aqueduct. Beginning in the 1850s, local grain was shipped from a wharf at Pennyfield Lock. By 1880, Pennyfield House had been built, and soon after many small buildings lined the canal and road. The Pennifields are the best known of those who resided at Lock 22 and were its lockkeepers for at least two generations starting in the 1870s. This period of canal prosperity quickly passed, but the Pennifields remained at the lock until 1924. Even when canal trade declined, those who worked alongside it served the diminishing barge traffic and other clientele. In addition to significance as part of the larger canal landscape, Pennyfield Lock retains elements of the historic scene specific to this site. Though most of the wooden buildings associated with life along the canal are gone or in serious disrepair, but the site has several unique features. In particular, it retains the open character of the small canal-side settlement. The landscape at opens out to flatter terrain, enclosed by the slope of an inland terrace. This was the setting of the small lock community. Pennyfield House anchors one corner of the site. At its lower end, Pennyfield Lock Road runs parallel with the canal and suggests the arrangement of buildings and spaces. Today, a new fence, old fence remnants, and large trees define the spaces that once lined the road and canal. A wide yard adjacent to Pennyfield House remains an open field, unusual along the canal. In the past 20 years, vegetation has closed up some formerly-open areas along the lock road and on the inland slope. Wire and post remnants are evidence of property lines that existed during the period of significance. A corn crib and loafing shed still stands adjacent to the road. There are remnants of domestic plantings around the property. Within the woods, a flagstone stairway ascends the slope. A small stone footbridge crosses a swale near the Pennyfield House, and dry-laid stone revetments line sections of a spring-fed stream. An old road that formerly ran between the canal and the plateau above the site follows that stream. These vestiges, along with the spatial character and the preserved features of the lock itself, set Pennyfield Lock apart as a singular canal site. The fact that Pennyfield Lock falls within the short section of the canal that today carries water enhances the site’s historic associations. Pennyfield Lock warrants designation as a component cultural landscape of the larger canal landscape because of these special features.

Pennyfield Lock: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, National Park Service

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