Great Falls Tavern

From www.nps.gov:

In 1828 the Tavern began as a simple stone Locktender's house, numbered 12 on the C&O Canal. The design for all early lockhouses included a kitchen and parlor downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. This cozy dwelling greeted its first residents, the engineers supervising construction of the canal's first segment. Later the first Locktender, W.W. Fenlon, moved in to operate Lock 20. How proudly his modest home must have stood as it observed the westward progress of the Great National Project.

Activity at Great Falls on the Potomac reached a feverish pitch overnight. Locktender Fenlon could not accommodate all of the workers and visitors to the canal's construction site. By 1830 he convinced the Board of Directors of the Canal Company to expand the original house and allow him to operate an inn. The two-story northern and southern wings were added by 1831. By September 1832 the completed building had a center porchway and shutters. The brick construction was plastered white and etched to look like the stone of the original section. The simple Lockkeeper's house had been transformed into a distinctive hotel, with a high front facade, double chimneys and a welcoming doorway. It was named the Crommelin House in honor of a Dutch family instrumental in securing Dutch loans for the canal company.

Photo Great Falls Tavern and tourists ca 1920'sAs the decades passed the Great Falls Tavern blossomed as a popular destination for city residents. Some visitors were curious about the canal's operation. Others wanted a gulp of fresh country air. All loved an excursion to the spectacular falls of the Potomac River. At night the Tavern came alive with music and laughter. Patrons enjoyed a tasty home cooked meal, dancing in the ballroom of the large northern wing and the fine hospitality of Lockkeeper and Innkeeper Fenlon.

For 25 cents overnight guests could reserve a bunk in the ladies' or the men's quarters on the second floor. Late-comers often slept on the floor or crawled into bed with someone else. The third floor attic served as "the honeymoon suite" and privacy could be secured for those with 50 cents and a marriage certificate. Eventually the lockkeeper's quarters were moved to the southern wing as guests came from all around to the inn at Great Falls.

In the following decade the Great Falls Tavern continued to serve patrons chicken dinners as of old but had assumed the atmosphere of a refreshment stand on the outside. By 1939 the Tavern, now a Park Service acquisition, was scheduled for renovation as a visitor contact and administration building, but in 1940 an engineer's inspection found the building severely decayed, near collapse, and unsafe for occupancy. For another ten years the fate of the old hotel dangled uncertainly before rehabilitation began.

Today the Great Falls Tavern is operated by the National Park Service as a Visitor Center and Museum. It still stands beside the now restored Lock 20 and watches the Potomac River roll by. Daily, patrons enter the doorway, and its brilliantly lit windows cast their reflection on canal waters once again