61. Old Angler’s Inn Plate

This plate was made for the Old Angler’s Inn, a restaurant that has been operating since 1860 beside the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal near the lower end of the gorge below the Great Falls of the Potomac River. It is located on MacArthur Boulevard, a 1942 renaming of the Conduit Road running atop the Washington Aqueduct. The inn’s name in green overlays a white-on-beige image of a top-hatted standing fisherman, the eponymous Old Angler, with his fishing line creating ripples in the water. Donated in 1993, this Syracuse China plate was probably made after 1966.

Enjoying the meals and the company of fellow patrons, the owner of a nearby gold mine (that operated approximately 1864-1880s at the summit of the entrance to Great Falls Park) reportedly presented the proprietor with a set of gold fishing hooks. In the early 20^th century, President Theodore Roosevelt stopped at the inn when fishing in the nearby Widewater region of the C&O Canal.

The Onondaga Pottery Co. in Syracuse, New York, began making vitreous china in 1895 under the name “Syracuse China.” The company name was not formally changed to match until 1966. A strong market for sturdy ware was found in restaurants, hotels, and railroad dining cars.

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