Great Falls Tavern

Panel 1 - plaque on the C&O tow path:

Life was very different around the Great Falls Tavern during the canal era. The building before you began as a small lockhouse and was added onto twice until it became what you see today. The area around the tavern bustled with a community of over 100 people including a post office. Passenger boats left here taking tourists on a leisurely overnight trip to Harpers Ferry, 50 miles up canal. After the great flood of 1889 the Great Falls Tavern became a private club until the National Park Service acquired it in 1938.

[Illustration caption:]

Great Falls Tavern – 1889: Passengers boarded boats at Great Falls for overnight trips to Harpers Ferry.

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park -

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

Panel 2 - plaque on exterior wall at main entrance to the Visitors Center:

Great Falls Tavern

Built between 1828 and 1831

by the C & O Canal Company,

the tavern provided meals

and lodging for

canal travelers and boatmen

for nearly a century.