C&O Canal Awarded Top Honor

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to experience the C&O Canal as it might have been in the 1800s with business at its prime? Time travel may be impossible, but you can get an experience that is pretty similar with the 's Canal Quarters program, recently awarded one of 14 Maryland Preservation awards.

The Outstanding Stewardship of Historical Properties by a Government Agency award, one of the highest honors for historic preservation projects in the state, recognizes a unique opportunity found in the Canal Quarters program.

The following statement is from the Maryland Historic Trust on the award:

"Since the National Park Service acquired the 184.5 mile-long Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1938, maintenance and reuse of the Park’s 1,300 historic structures has been a concern. In the 1990s, NPS embarked on a leasing program that was successful at preserving buildings, but did not serve the greater visitor need. Partnering with the nonprofit C&O Canal Trust, NPS developed a new paradigm for adaptive reuse of the Park’s historic buildings. The vision was to create a point-to-point immersive interpretive experience where visitors could stay overnight in the Park’s buildings while traveling along the C&O Canal. The partners identified the many lock houses adjacent to the towpath as ideal opportunities for such reuse. These buildings hold primary significance to the park, but were vacant and served only as “scene setters” for the Park’s 4.1 million annual visitors. The resulting Canal Quarters Program is an exemplary adaptive reuse arrangement within the National Park Service, catalyzed by a dynamic partnership, and furthering the Park's mission to protect and manage cultural and historic resources."

Have you experienced the Canal Quarters Program? Do you want to? Leave us a comment!