If you walk the C&O Canal towpath regularly, you may have noticed quite a bit of activity at Lockhouse 8 in recent months. In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the C&O Canal Trust, in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS), has been rehabilitating Lockhouse 8 for the Canal Quarters Interpretive Program. Work on the lockhouse began in April. After extensive improvements to the nearly 200-year old structure that included new electrical systems, flooring and framing, the rustic lockhouse will be open to overnight guests starting September 5.
The canal and its lockhouses played an important role in the development of Cabin John. Construction of the C&O Canal started in 1828 as a transport route for coal from western Maryland to Georgetown, bringing an influx of settlers to the area. The 184.5-mile long canal had 74 lift locks to manage the 695-foot elevation between Cumberland and Washington, DC. The locks were simple, hand-operated gates based on Leonardo da Vinci’s original 1485 design.
Lock keepers opened gates for passing boat traffic and offered provisions for boatmen and mules. Women and children were integral to canal life, working as unpaid laborers and assisting with lock duties. They also tended gardens, flocks of chickens and other farm animals, for their families and to sell. Sounds from the canal, from the flow of water, the mules’ bells and the call “He-ey Lock” were part of the new community’s background noise.
Lock 8 is the first of the “Seven Locks” (hence the name of the nearby road), in which the canal was raised 56 feet over one and a quarter miles up to Lock 14. In 1829, James O’Brien submitted a proposal to the C&O Canal Company to build houses numbered 5 and 6 for $725 each–the sixth house is Lockhouse 8. The first lock keeper at Lockhouse 8 was Solomon Drew, who in 1830 was given “use of the Lockhouse” for himself and his family, as well as the adjoining land to garden and a $100 yearly salary. Over the next 100 years a total of nine lock tenders were custodians of the house, an 18 x 30 foot stone structure with two downstairs rooms, a large stone fireplace and two rooms upstairs.
The last lock tender of Lockhouse 8 was Charles Spong. He and his wife, Sarah, moved to the house in 1915, where he worked as the lock keeper until canal operations ceased in 1924 due to catastrophic floods and competition from the railroads. Charles and his family eventually relocated to a house on Halifax Street, just above the canal. He continued to operate the lock for pleasure boats traveling along the waterway. He died in 1934. His daughter Myrtle married John Fields, a carpenter who worked for the government. As young newlyweds, they lived at Lockhouse 8 with her parents. She and John had eight children, three of whom were born at Lockhouse 8 while the canal was still in operation, including their daughter, Lillian, who was born in 1917. During those years, seven people lived in the cozy four room space. After John died, Myrtle married his friend, Charlie Muck. Charlie and Myrtle rented Lockhouse 8 during the late 1940s and 1950s. Lillian and Jack Fields, two of Myrtle’s children, recalled their memories of life on the canal in a 2006 interview. Charles, their grandfather, kept white geese at the house. He had a rocking chair on the porch, flowers out front and a garden along the canal side. They also remembered the flood of 1924 in which the river rose up to the second floor of the lockhouse.
The first overnight guest at Lockhouse 8 will be Jesse Stephens, a descendent of the Spong family and an avid history buff. Jesse’s grandmother was Lillian Fields, and his great grandparents were Myrtle and John Fields. Jesse and his siblings, Wendy and William Stephens, kindly donated a corner cabinet shelf that his great-grandfather, John Fields, originally built for Lockhouse 8.
Jesse remembers visiting Cabin John as a child in the mid-1970s and being enthralled by the sense of history, from walking over the Union Arch Bridge, visiting Lockhouse 8 and wandering over to Glen Echo. His own father often shared stories of visiting the lockhouse in the 1940s, playing in the river and how his dad often warned him, “don’t get wet!”
In the early 1960s, according to a government Historic Structures Report, the house at Lock 8 had fallen into significant disrepair and had been vandalized. It was scheduled for rehabilitation to provide housing for park employees; there were even plans to install a bathroom on the second floor. However, it remained empty and dilapidated until the Potomac Conservancy took over stewardship of the building for its “River Center” (2005-2019). The recent rehabilitation has brought Lockhouse 8 back to life, a tangible piece of Cabin John’s history that can be experienced by anyone. Stays at Cabin John’s Lockhouse 8 and Lockhouse 10 (and other canal quarters) can be booked at www.canaltrust.org.
By Rachel Donnan, Contributing Writer