C&O Canal headquarters moving to Williamsport

The Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park's headquarters is moving to Williamsport.

By a unanimous vote Friday, the Washington County Board of Commissioners approved a grant agreement for $1.25 million to acquire a former lumber yard property on West Potomac Street that will be redeveloped into the park's headquarters, just steps away from one of the most popular national parks in the country.

"It’s so natural to put the national headquarters for the C&O Canal, by the canal," said Bob Brennan, executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Corp., or MEDCO.

Once the county acquires and demolishes the former Miller Lumber yard at 122-142 W. Potomac St., it will enter into a ground lease with MEDCO, which will invest about $11.5 million to build the new headquarters building.

The National Park Service has agreed to put $5 million toward the project and enter into a lease with MEDCO for 30 years, Brennan said.

"This is one more really important step in the whole process," C&O Canal Park Superintendent Kevin Brandt said. "... I could not be more thrilled that the county has stepped up the way they have."

Design work and construction is expected to take the better part of two years, with 2020 viewed as the estimated completion timeframe for the relocation near the midway point of the 184.5-mile park along the Potomac River.

A number of local officials attended Friday's special commissioners meeting, including several officials from the Town of Williamsport who have been pushing for the project for years.

"It's just overwhelming," town manager Donnie Stotelmyer said. "I can't believe that we've finally crossed the goal line. We're here. Just like the aqueduct project, when you have local, county, state and federal, if you all work together look what you can accomplish."

The headquarters project would add to the nearly $12 million Conococheague Aqueduct restoration project that's been ongoing in the small town.

"You're talking over $24 million being invested in a small community," Stotelmyer said. "Today's a big day for Maryland, a bigger day for Washington County and a huge day for Williamsport."

All five county commissioners voiced strong support for the project, which came together thanks to a huge push by county staff in finalizing the grant agreement with the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development in the past two days.

"There’s a tremendous amount of history, and this is just the perfect — the only — location for the National Park Service on the C&O Canal," Commissioners President Terry Baker said.

Visitation to the canal, which extends from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Md., has grown from about 125,000 to nearly 450,000 in the past few years, Brandt said, and that figure is only expected to grow in the future with the headquarters' relocation.

"It is going to become the nucleus of the entire 184.5 miles," he said.