Lockhouse 44
Grassick M. 2010. Lockhouse 44. Historic Furnishing Reports. Harpers Ferry Center, National Park Service
This report contains historical information about Lockhouse 44 and recommends using historic furnishings based on the information to interpret sections of the building to the period from 1915 to 1930. Lockhouse 44 is located near milepost 100 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Williamsport, Maryland. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company directed that a house be built for the lockkeeper at Lock 44 in 1867. This house, with many alterations, may be the house standing today. When the canal went into receivership to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1890, the existing lockhouse was in place at Lock 44. Harvey Brant, the last lockkeeper at Lock 44, moved into the house with his wife and two small daughters in 1915, and operated the lock until the canal closed in 1924. Lockhouse 44 remained empty after the Brant family moved out, although the National Park Service stabilized the building and restored the exterior in 1998. This report recommends using historic furnishings based on oral histories provided by the Brant family to interpret sections of the building to the period from 1915 to 1930. The National Park Service has made physical changes to the lockhouse in the years since the Brant family left the lock, and certain features could easily be restored or reinterpreted so the physical structure more accurately reflects the family’s use of the house in the interpretive period. This report recommends reconstruction of the enclosed porch to more accurately interpret essential activities in the life of the lockhouse family.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Grassick, Mary
- Date of Issue
- 2010-03
- Publisher
- Harpers Ferry Center, National Park Service
- Units
- CHOH , HIST
- Keywords
- Architecture, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Cultural Resources, ehistory, furnishings, History, Lockhouse