C&O Canal Lock Keeper's House
Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia
Marker Inscription
Lock Keeper's House, formerly the Eastern terminal of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Erected about 1835. The canal passed along the present line of B Street in front of this house, emptying into Tiber Creek and the Potomac River.
Erected by Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks
The Story
Built around 1835, this small stone dwelling housed the keeper of the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, where the waterway met Tiber Creek and the Potomac near the growing capital. In the canal era, lock keepers collected tolls and worked the gates that floated boats laden with coal and goods toward Washington.
Why it matters
It is a rare survivor of the canal age that once knit the young republic's cities and markets together before the railroads.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Art Museum of the Americas0.1 mi away · 201 18th Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- DAR Museum0.1 mi away · 1776 D Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- Interior Museum0.2 mi away · 1849 C Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- Octagon House0.3 mi away · 1799 New York Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC
- National Museum of African American History and Culture0.4 mi away · 1400 Constitution Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC
- Dacor Bacon House Museum0.4 mi away · 1801 F Street Northwest
Attractions
- Lockkeeper's Housenearby · DC
- World War II Memorial0.2 mi away · 1964 Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC
- Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain0.3 mi away
- Washington Monument0.3 mi away · 2 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- White House Peace Vigil0.5 mi away
- Lincoln Memorial0.6 mi away
Food & drink
- Met Cafe0.3 mi away · 1750 New York Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC
- The Cafe At The Corcoran0.3 mi away · 500 17th Street Northwest
- Greenberry's0.3 mi away · 1805 E Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- Grace Street Coffee Roasters at AIA0.3 mi away · 1735 New York Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC
- Chick-fil-A0.4 mi away · 514 19th Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- SecreTea0.4 mi away · 1959 E Street Northwest, Washington, DC
Places to stay
- Courtyard Marriott - Foggy Bottom0.4 mi away · 515 20th Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- Hotel Washington0.5 mi away · 515 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- State Plaza Hotel0.5 mi away · 2117 E Street Northwest, Washington, DC
- Willard InterContinental Hotel0.5 mi away · 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC
- JW Marriott0.5 mi away · 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC
- AKA White House0.5 mi away · 1710 H Street Northwest, Washington, DC
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Zero Milestone
Washington, DC
Set just south of the White House on the Ellipse, the Zero Milestone was conceived as the point from which all distances on American highways would be measured, echoing the ancient Roman "Golden Milestone" in the Forum. Authorized by Congress in 1920 and dedicated in 1923, it rose during the early automobile age when good-roads advocates dreamed of a national network radiating from the capital. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey precisely fixed its latitude, longitude, and elevation, anchoring the small granite marker as a symbolic center of the country's road system.
Titanic Monument
Washington, DC
When the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, more than 1,500 people died in the frigid North Atlantic, many of them men who stepped back so women and children could reach the lifeboats. In the years after the disaster, women across the United States raised funds dime by dime to honor that sacrifice. The resulting granite memorial, designed by sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, depicts a robed figure with outstretched arms and now stands along Washington's Southwest waterfront.
USS Serpens Monument
Arlington, VA
On a January night in 1945, the cargo ship USS Serpens exploded while loading depth charges off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, killing the vast majority of those aboard in the single largest disaster suffered by the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II. Most of the dead were Coast Guardsmen, and their remains were brought home and buried together at Arlington National Cemetery. This monument rises over their common grave, marking the resting place of those lost in the catastrophe.
Edward Braddock
Washington, DC · est. 1907
In the spring of 1755, at the height of the French and Indian War, a division of British regulars under General Edward Braddock set out along this road toward Fort Duquesne, deep in the contested Ohio country. The campaign ended in a disastrous ambush that killed Braddock and scattered his army, an early lesson in frontier warfare witnessed by a young aide named George Washington. The Society of Colonial Wars set this memorial in 1907 to mark the historic route.