Leesport Lock House

27 West Wall Street

Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 28, 2020

1. Leesport Lock House Marker

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The Leesport Lock House originally served as the economic and transportation center for the rural community of Leesport. Tracing the development of the house is similar to tracing the development of the community. Today Leesport is a quiet, provincial town with little industry; it is basically a residential community. Restoring the lock house and building an educational program around it would preserve nineteenth century America as it existed in Leesport, Much of the canal and railroad has already been destroyed or altered; we do not want this to happen to the Lockhouse.

From local histories, newspaper article s and oral accounts we can piece together a colorful account of life both social and economic—occuring around the lock house. The Schuylkill Canal was constructed in 1822 along the river from Leesport to the Schuylkill County line, a distance of 12 miles. It continued to operate successfully for some 50 years; its chief competition was the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad which extended its lines northward to Leesport in 1841.

In the 1830's and 40's the lock keeper was a man named Althouse who kept a store and had charge of a two-chambered lock. The surrounding land had

Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), November 28, 2020

2. The Leesport Lock House

been purchased by a Mr. Samuel Lee who drew up plans for a town along the Centre Turnpike (Rt, 61 today). Mr. Lee was considered a man of importance and the place was called Lee's Lock by the boatmen; later it became Leesport.

At the height of the canal trade, two shift s of two lock tenders each were employed on the chambers. Two ferrymen were also employed at the dam in the Schuylkill River, a short distance below Leesport, Harry Hahn was the Superintendent of the Leesport locks and was host to many hundred boatmen at his stone house until it was time to go either north or south. A bam for mules was located north of the locks and across the street, in the basement of the Schuylkill Valley House, A.D. Himmelreich conducted a successful grain business.

Great amounts of butter and eggs were sent down the canal to Philadelphia for use by the bakeries. In early reports of these shipments the name of the town was Althouse, being changed after the influential Samuel Lee appeared on the scene. The only bakery in Leesport was operated by Jonas High and that too was closely associated with the canal. He erected a large building with outdoor bake ovens and conducted a thriving business with the canal boatmen. His business was located along Canal Street, a few blocks froom the lock house.

Coal, however, was the principal product of commerce on the

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canal. Before the East Penn Railroad came into existence, farmers from as far east as Kutztown came here to receive coal in return for their products. Wagons lined up from the road leading to Gemant's Church to the canal port awaiting grain and produce for coal. Even after coal was transported by rail to Port Clinton, empty canal boats would pick up coal and transport it to Reading via Leesport.

As the canal and railroad prospered, new industries and businesses grew up, prominent among them the Leesport Furnace built in 1852, Today all of this has disappeared. The canal bed has been filled in; most of the lock destroyed; only two passenger trains a day pass through the town. What remains is the lock house. Because of its historical significance to the nineteenth century, we fee l that it should be preserved and listed on the Pennsylvania Historic Register.