Nomination Form
The Patowmack Company was organized in 1785 to make the Potomac River navigable from Georgetown to Harper’s Ferry, a project designed to bring western trade to the Chesapeake region. The Patowmack Canal at Great Falls, one of the earliest in the country to have locks, was innovative from an engineering standpoint. George Washington, a prime mover in Potomac River improvements, served as the company’s first president. The Patowmack Canal Corporation went bankrupt and dissolved its charter in 1826. The Potomac Canal was abandoned in 1830. The section of the Potomac Canal Historic District at Great Falls preserved by the National Park Service contains several locks and numerous archaeological sites relating to the canal and the town of Matildaville, which was planned to serve the canal at Great Falls but eventually disappeared. A remarkable engineering feat is the deep canal trace cut through the rock cliffs.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Nomination Form
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
