A project to rescue a dilapidated, 178-year-old house on the edge of Washington, D.C.'s National Mall won a $1-million grant on Dec. 9 from American Express.

The lockkeeper's house served a freight canal, located near where the Washington Monument is now. Canals formed an inland freight transportation system, which was eclipsed by railroads in the 1870s.

Boarded up since the 1970s, the house will be moved back from the road and undergo extensive interior and exterior restoration.