Volunteering to help the park: A work crew installs a bench near Great Falls in 2016.
Supporting park projects: Catoctin Aqueduct after collapse in 1973
Supporting park projects: Catoctin Aqueduct after restoration effort in 2011
Exploring history and nature: Sideling Hill Creek Aqueduct as viewed from the Western Maryland Rail Trail.
Protecting the canal since 1954: The association opposes Georgetown University’s plan to build a large boathouse in the park
Protecting the canal since 1954: The association opposes Georgetown University’s plan to build a large boathouse in the park
Exploring history and nature: Hikers gather at Fifteen Mile Creek Aqueduct in 2018.
Protecting the canal since 1954: Justice Douglas and eight others pause during their famous hike, which publicized the canal in 1954
Exploring history and nature: Ranger provides interpretation for hikers at Seneca Stone Cutting Mill in 2020.
Exploring history and nature: Hikers marvel at a large specimen during a tree identification walk in 2012
Volunteering to help the park: Association volunteer attaches plaque to newly installed bench in 2018.
Exploring history and nature: Association members participate in the last day of the 2009 Thru Hike at Great Falls
Volunteering to help the park: Association member helps install an identification sign at Landers in 2011
Exploring history and nature: Hikers gather at Dam 5 in 2019.
Protecting the canal since 1954: Justice Douglas and others rally against replacing the canal with a highway.
Volunteering to help the park: Association members repaint picnic tables at Swains Lock
Volunteering to help the park: Association volunteers assemble picnic table in 2018.
Historic 1910 scene at Chesapeake and Ohio Canal lock 20, also known as Tavern Lock, and the uppermost of Six Locks, with the Great Falls Tavern, now visitor center, in view. Montgomery County Maryland, from the C&O Canal Trust collection.
The lock here was originally built with Seneca red standstone brought down from more than 6 miles upstream, but it has been extensively repaired with limestone, granite, brick, and concrete following times of flooding damage.
The Great Falls Tavern was an original 1829 lock house which had additions on the North and South side by 1831. The building became both lockhouse and tavern, and the lock tender managed both tavern and locks 20 and 19, in addition to supervisory status over all of the adjacent six locks.
The building was renamed the Crommelin House soon after construction, for the Dutch banking family that made loans to the federal government in support of the canal initiative.
In about 1849, it was decided that the site could no longer sell intoxicating beverages, so its role as a Tavern was de-emphasized. A ballroom area in the building was repurposed as a grocery store in 1851. The building reopened for use as a hotel, and another kitchen addition was put on in 1876.
This location also had a feed store added in 1869, a barn, and a mule stable, and other outbuildings. In the 1880s, a log structure was constructed to be a lockhouse specifically for Lock 20, and a frame house below that to serve as lockhouse for lock 19.
The Chesapeake and Ohio canal between locks 20 and 19, with the replica packet boat (passenger boat) Charles Fenton Mercer moored. There are sometimes excursion rides on the canal in this area. Montgomery County Maryland.
Historic view of the cable footbridge that was near the Great Falls Tavern, along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which got visitors out closer to the Great Falls in the years before the current trail with a better overlook was constructed. From the C&O Canal Historic Trust collection.