Page 19 - ArchDC_Winter 2019
P. 19
Historic photo showing the house
in its original location, with one end
projecting into a lane of 17th Street, NW. Photo: Library of Congress
Landlocked on the National Mall at the intersection of
17th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, sits an old
stone cabin that recalls the early days of Washington
and the network of canals and rivers that defined the
city’s commercial life.
Originally envisioned by George Washington
and Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the Washington City
Canal opened in 1815 and was intended to develop
local markets and secure the city’s position as a hub of
commerce and transportation. The canal flowed from
the Anacostia River towards the Capitol, crossing the
Mall to join the Potomac just south of the Executive
Mansion (later known as the White House). Barges
loaded with coal, food, and stone for public buildings
plied its waters. By 1833, an extension connected the
Washington City Canal to the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal, and where they joined at the present-day corner
of 17th and Constitution, a lockkeeper managed traffic,
kept the records, and operated the locks. This tiny
stone structure was built to house the lockkeeper and
at least some of his purported 13 children.
The canal’s heyday was brief. Overtaken by
a rapidly growing and more efficient national rail
network, plagued by financial woes, and increasingly
polluted with sewage and trash, the Washington
City Canal closed to barge traffic in the 1850s and
was eventually filled to make way for what would
become Constitution Avenue. The Lockkeeper’s House,
without its canal, was left stranded on the Mall as the
only reminder of those earlier civic and commercial
aspirations. The abandoned building soon became a
squatters’ destination, was repaired in 1903 to become a
jail for the Park Police, later altered to serve as a public
restroom and storage building, and finally sat vacant
for more than 40 years.
Project: The Lockkeeper’s House, The National Park Service, the Trust for the
17th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC National Mall, and PWP Landscape Architecture
have now collaborated to bring new purpose to the
Architects: Davis Buckley Architects and Planners 350-square-foot structure, preparing it to serve as the
Landscape Architects: PWP Landscape Architecture
Lighting Designer: Claude R. Engle gateway into the rehabilitated Constitution Gardens
Structural Engineers: 1200 Architectural Engineers now being planned.
MEP Engineers: Henry Adams Tapped to join the team was Davis Buckley
Civil Engineers: Weidlinger Associates Architects and Planners, a Washington firm widely
General Contractor: Hensel Phelps
recognized for its historic preservation expertise and
All photos © Michael Ventura, except as noted
A KEY TO HISTORY 17
