 In its heyday, the small community consisted of two stores, two warehouses, a dry dock for boat repair, a school, and post office, plus about a dozen houses.Located on the small peninsula known as Prather's Neck, Four Locks was named for the series of four canal locks – 47 through 50 – of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, built at the site between 1836 and 1838, to avoid a four-mile loop in the Potomac River and to handle a 33-foot difference in elevation.In time, a close-knit community supporting the canal thrived at the site, and continued for the life of canal operations.