by Geoff Fox
The historic Bowles House in Hancock could be reopening as the C&O Canal visitor center for Hancock after the Hancock Historical Society agreed to be the sponsoring organization to provide visitor’s assistance at the site.
Sinclair Hamilton, who is the Hancock representative on Canal Towns, told town officials he has been working with a park ranger from the National Park Service to get the house reopened.
Hamilton said he talked to Historical Society President Dan Murphy about the agreement between the NPS and Hancock Historical Society.
There needs to be a memorandum of understanding between the Park Service and an organization in the town to have someone responsible for staffing the site and the Historical Society stepped up to do so.
Three volunteers have already stepped up to help at the Bowles House when it does in fact reopen.
“We won’t need as many as we did in the past,” Hamilton said.
Things will start off slowly when the Bowles House reopens and as more volunteers are available, there will be more hours open.
Hamilton said the blueprint for operating the historic site as a visitor’s center is from the Abner Cloud House in Washington D.C. where The Colonial Dames of America, Chapter III, shares the house with the Park Service.
The Colonial Dames of America open the house one Saturday a month between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“We figure that’s a good place for us to start,” Hamilton said. “We can definitely get enough volunteers to open for four or five Saturdays during the holiday season.”
The Bowles House would still need to be inspected, brought up to code, and made safe and usable.
“If we want to preserve this historic building, it needs to be used,” Hamilton said.
Murphy said the process to get the house open is going to be a slow process, possibly evolving over the next year or two. As long as something is done to keep the Bowles House open, the Park Service will put money into it to restore it, he told town officials.
