National Register of Historic Places

Power Plant and Dam No. 5

Marlow, Berkeley County, West Virginia
Listed
December 10, 1980
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
80004438

About this property

Power Plant and Dam No. 5, also known as Honeywood Dam, comprises a dam on the Potomac River, originally built for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and a power plant built to take advantage of the river's flow to generate hydroelectric power. The dam is included in Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. The dam was originally built to retain water for the C&O Canal in 1835. It was modified in 1993, and is 20 feet (6.1 m) tall, retaining 490 acres (200 ha) of reservoir. The 1835 dam was constructed of wood cribbing, and was attacked by Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson in December 1861 with the aim of destroying the dam, depriving the upper C&O Canal of water and consequently cutting off coal shipments to Washington, D.C. Two assaults by Jackson's forces failed to cause significant damage to the dam. The dam was later replaced with a stone structure, which has been upgraded with concrete. The power plant is a two-story brick building on the West Virginia side of the river. It was built circa 1900 as the Honeywood paper mill. The first Honeywood Mill was built at the same time as the dam, in 1835 by Edward Colston. It burned a few years later and was replaced, then burned in the Civil War. The power plant is operated by FirstEnergy with a total installed capacity of 1210 kilowatts. The dam and power plant were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Location

Marlow, Berkeley County, West Virginia
39.60625, -77.92282

Categories

INDUSTRYECONOMICS
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Colston, Edward, House
Industrial
1.1 mi
Maidstone Manor Farm
Listed
1.4 mi
Harmony Cemetery
Listed
2.6 mi
Mason, James, House and Farm
Industrial
2.7 mi
Downs, Charles, II, House
Industrial
2.8 mi

Nearby Battles

Skirmish at Falling Waters (1861)
1861Civil War
3.3 mi

Questions about this property

When was Power Plant and Dam No. 5 listed on the National Register?

Power Plant and Dam No. 5 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 1980.

What type of historic resource is Power Plant and Dam No. 5?

Power Plant and Dam No. 5 is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Power Plant and Dam No. 5?

The period of significance for Power Plant and Dam No. 5 is recorded as the industrial era.

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