page_title: Four Locks
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Four Locks / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Lockhouse at Lock 49, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, at four locks.
context_page_description: Four Locks is a former small community which is now part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. It was once a thriving community of homes and businesses in Washington County, Maryland that supported the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal from the mid-19th century, until its closure in the 1920s. In its heyday, the small community consisted of two stores, two warehouses, a dry dock for boat repair, a school, and post office, plus about a dozen houses.
context_section_description: Located on the small peninsula known as Prather's Neck, Four Locks was named for the series of four canal locks – 47 through 50 – of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, built at the site between 1836 and 1838, to avoid a four-mile loop in the Potomac River and to handle a 33-foot difference in elevation. In time, a close-knit community supporting the canal thrived at the site, and continued for the life of canal operations. Because of its location about midway between Cumberland, Maryland and Washington, D.C., canal boats frequently stopped here for repairs and supplies. Several families, including the Taylors, Flynns, Myers, Bowers, and Hassetts had homes here for several generations during the canal era.
caption: Lockhouse 49 at four locks
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