Mule Barn

• Shawn R. Hutchinson
  
  
  (August 27, 2018, 4:05 pm)

  The Mule Barn is located about 200 feet from the Lockhouse. This building provided winter quarters (December - March) for the animals that canal boat owners rented or owned. There were stables on the first floor and hay storage upstairs in the loft. It is not clear whether the mule barn was privately owned and operated or run by the canal company. The two-story wood building was of post-and-beam, mortised-and-tenoned construction, with the second floor cantilevered out 5 feet 9 inches on the west elevation. The gabled roof had a shed continuation out over the cantilevered area. The exterior walls were sheathed in vertical rough-sawn boards of about one inch thickness and widths of 5 to 11 inches. The front west) elevation had three single doors, under the overhang, at ground level. The side (south) had a centered top-hinged door for loading hay into the loft. The loft had a louvered opening on both sides and one above the door in the gable end. The dimensions of the stone foundation were 24 feet wide by 35 feet long. National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory, 2008

Four Locks--Potomac River Guide

In 1836, a one-mile shortcut was built for the canal to avoid a four-mile loop in the Potomac. The shortcut required the construction of four locks to handle a 32-foot difference in elevation. Lock houses, a mule barn (now restored), general stores, warehouses, and a drydock for boat repair were built along this section of the canal.

PDF Four Locks Walking Guide - home.nps.gov

mule barn on the boat. Each pair typically worked a six hour shift called a "trick" covering about 18 miles. A diet of corn, hay, and oats kept the mules strong so they could pull the 120 tons of coal carried by the boat. During the winter when the canal was closed, mules were housed in barns. This barn was reconstructed by the