Schuylkill Canal Locktender's House
Welcome Center
Schuylkill Canal, Locktender's House, Black Rock Dam is the Welcome Center for the Upper Providence Township, Trappe and Collegeville Boroughs region of the Route 113 Heritage Corridor Tour.
When anthracite was discovered in northeastern Pennsylvania's coalfields, entrepreneurs needed a way to move the precious and lucrative fuel source to Philadelphia and other industrial ports. The Schuylkill River flowed that way, but coal-laden barges would have gotten stuck in its shallow waters. Falls and steep gorges made it even harder to navigate the river. The solution? The Schuylkill Navigation Company engineered and in 1820 built a series of dams, canals and locks that enabled boats to get downstream and around the abrupt changes in water levels. Locks raised or lowered boats gently to the next level. Lock tenders made sure that happened.
Round-the-clock traffic required lock tenders to live alongside the locks, in houses like this three-story, stucco-over-fieldstone house built at Lock 60 between 1836 and 1839. The lock tender and his family needed to be as self-sufficient as possible. They had their own smokehouse, barn and field crops—surplus products for sale to passing boats. The canal closed in the 1920s, but the last lock tender stayed on for about 50 years.
The house stood in pretty bad shape when Upper Providence Township and the Schuylkill Canal Association assumed responsibility for it in 1983. An ambitious restoration project breathed new life into this old canal landmark. The house now welcomes you to the Schuylkill Canal Association's Visitors' Center, a place to see exhibits, historic photographs and documents about canals, a hub for information about programs, events and activities held here and throughout the regional heritage corridor.
