{"nrhp_refnum":"77001123","name":"Leesport Lock House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Wall St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Leesport","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.44663799400007,"lon":-75.96741680499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-06-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Economics","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Leesport Lock House is an L-shaped, six-bay stone and frame building beside the former Schuylkill Canal at Leesport, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The stone section is dated to about 1840 and is connected to frame additions from the 1870s to about 1900.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the lock house is the surviving remnant of the canal system that was essential to commerce and transportation in Leesport. It served as the economic and transportation center of the community, with its use tied to canal boatmen, coal and grain trade, and the lock tenders. The nomination states that much of the canal and railroad has been destroyed, making the building the principal remaining link to that period.","narrative":"Beside the former Schuylkill Canal at Leesport stands an L-shaped lock house of locally quarried sandstone and granite, two and a half stories high, with a full basement. The stone section is judged to date from about 1840, and frame additions were built beside it around 1870 to 1880 and about 1900. The stone portion was roofed in standing-seam tin between 1890 and 1910 over an earlier hand-split shingle roof. The Schuylkill Canal opened in 1822 and ran about 12 miles, and the building served as the economic and transportation center of the community. Lock tenders, ferrymen, and canal boatmen were housed and fed there, and the house stood at the heart of a coal and grain trade in which farmers exchanged produce for coal. The canal bed has since been filled in and most of the locks destroyed, so the building is regarded as the principal surviving reminder of the canal era in Leesport.","period_of_significance":"c. 1840","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.575169-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/77001123.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001123/b627e0dd38-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001123/b627e0dd38-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Fightin' Phillie at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leesport_Lock_House_during_Flood_of_2006.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Fightin' Phillie at en.wikipedia</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leesport_Lock_House_during_Flood_of_2006.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996219","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leesport_Lock_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15242194"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/leesport-lock-house-77001123/"}