There’s a lot of love going into the Swains Lockhouse rehabilitation. It comes from the C&O Canal Trust that chose the Swains home for their newest Canal Quarters guest house, and it comes from the National Park Service (NPS) that is pouring its resources into interpreting the home as it appeared in 1916. The result will be an experience that Canal Quarters guests will cherish forever. Read More
For now Swains Lockhouse is a stone shell, sealed for the winter. But an amazing transformation is about to take place adjacent to Lock 21. Read More
The Canal Quarters each interpret a different period of Canal history. What period will Swains Lockhouse interpret? Read on! Read More
History is all around us.
The mid-Atlantic is rich with reminders of America’s great heritage, from battlefields and monuments to buildings and structures that help to tell our young nation’s story. Read More
Everyone likes to add personal touches to their home. That’s what makes it a home. Now, think about an old home—in this case a C&O Canal lockhouse—that was built in 1832. Read More
C&O Canal Trust Board Chair Michael C. Mitchell and President Robin Zanotti have signed an agreement with the Friends of Fletchers Cove, becoming that group’s fiscal agent. Read More
Do you believe in time travel? Over the coming months, a two-story stone home in Potomac, MD will transported back to the early 1900s. Read More
The C&O Canal’s rich history begins over 180 years ago with its infamous groundbreaking ceremony on July 4, 1828, but its life as a National Historical Park only began 45 years ago on January 8, 1971. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust hosted a groundbreaking on Saturday, November 14, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. to officially launch construction on the new Marsden Tract bridge over the canal. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust today announced a t-shirt artwork contest for their 2016 Canal Pride events. Amateur artists are invited to submit artwork to be considered for the 2016 Canal Pride events. The winning design will be printed on our Canal Pride t-shirts and worn by our volunteers as they work in the C&O Canal National Historical Park during the spring months. Read More
Lockhouse 21, locally known as “Swains Lockhouse” after the family who inhabited it for years, will be the seventh lockhouse rehabilitated as part of the award-winning Canal Quarters program, the C&O Canal Trust and the C&O Canal National Historical Park announced Saturday evening. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust will be hosting the Fifth Annual Park After Dark Fundraiser on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. to benefit the C&O Canal National Historical Park (NHP). This unique event is held beneath the stars in the C&O Canal NHP at the Historic Great Falls Tavern and features live music, great food, libations, a live and silent auction, a camp fire, and more. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust is pleased to welcome Randy Cone, John Guttman, and Don Harrison to the Board of Directors. They join eight members bringing the total number of members on the Board to eleven as of June 2015. Read More
Funded projects include repairs to Marsden Tract Bridge, implementation of Canal Classrooms at Great Falls
Hagerstown, MD – The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park and its official nonprofit partner, the C&O Canal Trust, today announced an award of nearly $150,000 in grant funding from the National Park Service’s Centennial Challenge. The award is designated for two projects: the repair of the Marsden Bridge in the Potomac area of the Park, and the expansion of the Canal Classrooms program in Great Falls. Read More
On Saturday, April 18, the C&O Canal Trust, in partnership with the C&O Canal National Historical Park, will kick off its 8th annual C&O Canal Pride Days, the single largest volunteer event to take place in the Park. Volunteers from around the community will spend the morning working on projects to restore and revitalize the C&O Canal National Historical Park at Great Falls from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Read More
Hagerstown, MD – The C&O Canal Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Robin Zanotti as its new President effective April 6. Zanotti has thirty years of executive leadership experience and specializes in managing capital campaigns and major gift programs. Read More
On Wednesday, March 11, 2015, the C&O Canal Trust presented a $65,000 check to the C&O Canal National Historical Park (NHP) in support of their Canal Classrooms education program. C&O Canal Trust Board Chair Michael C. Mitchell presented the check to C&O Canal NHP Superintendent Kevin Brandt at the Great Falls Tavern in Potomac, Md. Read More
One of the comments we get most often about our Canal Quarters lockhouses is the opportunity to “get away from technology.” So why would we go and add technology to lockhouses 6 and 10? Read More
The C&O Canal Trust is pleased to announce three new leadership appointments: Michael C. Mitchell as Board Chairman, Stephen E. Chaudet as Board Vice Chairman, and Megan Kula as Vice President of Development. Read More
A new, three-year strategic plan was adopted at the September 12, 2014 Board Meeting, the result of six months of work by the Trust Board, staff, National Park Service, and other affiliated constituents to determine what priorities should lead us into the future. Our new strategic plan appears in its entirety below. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust today announced the Fifth Anniversary of the award-winning Canal Quarters program, to be celebrated on Saturday, November 8 and Sunday, November 9, 2014 with six separate free events open to the public. Read More
The Trust is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a $10,000 grant from REI, a popular retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment. The money will be used to help fund our Canal Pride Day events in 2015, currently scheduled for Great Falls, Williamsport, and the Paw Paw Tunnel. Read More
On Monday, June 2, 2014, the C&O Canal Trust presented a $16,907.50 check to the C&O Canal National Historical Park (NHP) in support of their Canal Classrooms education program. C&O Canal Trust Board Chair Mary Jo Veverka presented the check to C&O Canal NHP Superintendent Kevin Brandt at the Great Falls Tavern in Potomac, Md., with the assistance of two DC City school children who were at the Park participating in a Canal Classrooms program that day. Read More
Imagine that a place you love, a place of refuge and retreat, is threatened with destruction in order to make way for a shopping center or an office building or a highway. What would you do?
That was exactly the situation Justice William O. Douglas faced early in 1954 when the neglected remnants of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were threatened by the construction of a scenic highway. The proposed project would be much like Skyline Drive built right next to, if not on top of, the old canal.
Canal Quarters, an innovative program that preserves and provides public use of historic lockkeepers’ houses along the 184.5-mile Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal, received the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s (ACHP) Chairman’s Award for Achievement in Historic Preservation in a Capitol Hill ceremony today. The Canal Quarters program was created and operates through a partnership with the C&O Canal National Historical Park and the non-profit C&O Canal Trust. Read More
