{"exhibit":{"title":"Why is there a lockkeeper's house on the Mall?","description":"
In the mid-1800s, canals crossed Washington and ran alongside the Mall, carrying boats filled with cargo and people between the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. A lockkeeper and his family of 13 children lived in the small stone house at Constitution Avenue and 17th Street between 1835 and 1855. He collected tolls and operated the lock of the Washington City Canal.\u00a0 Nationwide, canal traffic declined by the 1850s with the rise of railroads. In 1855, the lockkeeper was no longer needed and the canal became neglected and polluted. The city filled in the canal 1872.<\/p>","credits":"","featured":0,"public":1,"theme":"","theme_options":null,"slug":"lockkeepers-house","added":"2013-03-26 11:03:03","modified":"2014-09-02 14:59:35","owner_id":3,"use_summary_page":1,"cover_image_file_id":null,"id":19},"item":{"item_type_id":6,"collection_id":null,"featured":0,"public":1,"added":"2013-03-26 01:41:05","modified":"2015-09-02 15:14:53","owner_id":3,"id":266}}