Local University Students Aid in Preserving Maryland's Historic Lock Houses

Last fall, students from Associate Professor Benjamin Ibarra-Sevilla’s Graphic Documentation class visited Williamsport, Maryland. They spent four days at the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Historic Park. Armed with sketchbooks, cameras, and laser measuring tools, they studied five historic lock houses in the park. These houses, built in the 1830s, were once homes to canal operators. The National Park Service manages these structures, reflecting the area's social, cultural, and economic history.

Since 2014, the School of Architecture’s Historic Preservation Program has worked with the National Park Service. This partnership allows students to learn while supporting the NPS's preservation work. As part of this, park officials and historians teach students about structures like the Maryland lock houses and other historic buildings. The students' work helps the National Park Service make decisions about preserving and maintaining these buildings.

In Maryland, the students documented the lock houses' conditions using various methods. They sketched, took photos, wrote field notes, and used photogrammetry and LiDAR scans to create digital models of the structures. This documentation will be submitted to the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) as part of the Library of Congress.

After the visit, two Bachelor of Architecture students, Brooklynn Cnare ('26) and Ellie Slaton ('26), shared their work with the university community. They made a two-minute video for the Undergraduate College’s Texas Student Research Showdown. This competition asks undergraduate researchers to explain their research to a general audience. Their video won second place in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences category.

Cnare and Slaton will present their work at the Longhorn Research Poster Session during Undergraduate Research Week on April 10. The university community can learn more about their research at this event.

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