Boston Navy Yard

Creation

Before the Boston Navy Yard complex was developed, the plot was in the then-separate town of Charlestown, settled in 1629.[4] It was mostly undeveloped marsh or pasture, with some buildings at the current yard's southwest corner,[5] and may have been used by both American Patriot Paul Revere and British forces during the American Revolutionary War.[6][7] The Navy was founded with the Naval Act of 1794,[8][9] under which six frigates were to be built, each at a different new shipyard.[9][10] Joshua Humphreys, the frigates' contractor, visited New England in 1799–1800 to investigate sites for a shipyard.[11] Humphreys recommended a site in the Boston area, citing the favorable topography and the large potential pool of laborers, despite the drawbacks of fogs.[12][13] Humphreys suggested a marshy site in Charlestown, near a mansion owned by Aaron Putnam,[14] where he said 23 acre could be obtained for $19,350.[13]

The frigates were ultimately not built, but plans for the yards were retained.[11][15] President John Adams agreed on 9 May 1800 to build a shipyard at Charlestown.[6][16] Charlestown was among the United States Navy's original six shipyards, along with Brooklyn, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Portsmouth, and Washington navy yards.[17][18] Putnam was tasked with studying the feasibility of acquiring land in the area.[17][16] Under an act passed by the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature),[19] land acquisition for the initial phase of construction began on 26 August 1800.[17][20][21] The initial acquisition was completed on 3 April 1801,[22][23] comprising ten land lots.[22][24] This gave the Navy a site of 34.25 acre, at a cost of $37,348.[22] The Charlestown Navy Yard never had a formal opening ceremony, being built up gradually.[20] For much of its time as a military facility, at least part of it was open to the public.[25] Employment generally peaked during wars (except for the Vietnam War) and decreased during peacetime.[26]

19th century

1800s to 1820s

Samuel Nicholson, the yard's first commandant, oversaw limited improvements to the complex,[27] which began in 1802.[28] The first wharf was among the earliest structures built;[28] the initial plans also included a dry dock, which was not constructed for over two decades.[29] The site was little used before the War of 1812,[24] and other U.S. government agencies used parts of it.[30] The Treasury Department leased 5 acre at the yard's northeastern corner in 1802 for a marine hospital,[30][31][32] and the War Department occupied a laboratory.[33][34] That year, a Marine Corps detachment began guarding the yard[35] and constructed their first barracks there.[36] Quarters G, the commandant's house, was constructed in 1805[31][37][38] as the yard's first residence.[39] Modifications to Quarters G, conducted two years later, marked the earliest repairs to the yard.[40] In 1809, the U.S. Army completed a gunhouse and a firearms magazine that it shared with the Navy,[41][42] and shortly thereafter, a boundary fence was built between the Army and Navy facilities.[43][44] The original Marine barracks was replaced with a brick structure in 1810–1811,[35][45] and a parade ground was built simultaneously.[31][46]

By 1812, a report by Commandant William Bainbridge found the complex in poor condition.[34][47] The yard contained Quarters G and I; a blacksmith's shop; various other offices, residences, and storage structures; and a boat landing and wharf.[33][48] A slipway for manufacturing ships was planned,[33][49] but construction was deferred for a lack of funds. The Navy added a wharf and slipway at the western boundary in 1813,[50][51][52] after Congress finally provided an appropriation for Charlestown Navy Yard, The first quay wall was built that year, and a ropewalk was also proposed, albeit not built.[39][53] The slipway was enclosed by a shiphouse in late 1813[50][52][54] but was blown apart and replaced within a year.[50][55] In the mid-1810s, defensive weaponry was installed at the entrances,[52][56] and a perimeter fence was added.[57] With retrenchment after the war, the Board of Navy Commissioners considered moving all the Navy's storehouses to Charlestown (which never occurred)[58] and erecting a dry dock there.[29][59] During 1817, the Navy built Quarters A (the porter's and guard's residence)[39][60] and moved the fence following a land swap.[61][62] A new spar shed[57] and timber shed were also added in the late 1810s.[62]

A further two shiphouses were built in the early 1820s,[50][55] by which the Navy Department reported that the yard was "in great decay".[63] The Navy also acquired land on the western boundary, relandscaped that site, and added outbuildings.[62][64] It obtained further land in the Lower Yard from the Army in 1821.[62][65] Afterward, the Navy also sought to take over the Marine Hospital,[65] eventually doing so in 1825.[62] The next year, the Navy completed a perimeter wall designed by Alexander Parris. The wall was Parris's first project at the yard,[66][67] with which he remained involved for nearly two decades.[68] Also in the 1820s, Parris designed a carriage house;[62] the Navy replaced the marine hospital with a yard officers' residence;[39][62][69] and a shipbuilding ways and a third shiphouse were built.[50] The Navy hired Loammi Baldwin Jr. to design a new dry dock at Charlestown, work on which began in 1827.[70][71][72] Other upgrades in the late 1820s included a new artillery battery[64][73] and re-landscaping of the area near Salem Turnpike.[73][74]

Meanwhile, the U.S. executive branch had begun thorough studies of the country's navy yards in 1826;[63][75] Baldwin was appointed as chief engineer for the Charlestown Navy Yard study.[63] His master plan was approved in 1828.[63][71][76] It recommended removing several buildings and adding a dry dock, shipbuilding way, and street grid,[29][77] along with several ultimately-unbuilt canals.[29][78] Most of the existing buildings to date were grouped in two areas, while marshland and a creek took up the remaining site.[77] The master plan influenced development at Charlestown Navy Yard during the next four decades.[76] Parris and his successor as chief engineer, Joseph E. Billings, designed many of the buildings constructed at Charlestown during that era.[79][80] The administration of President Andrew Jackson studied the country's seven navy yards in 1829, finding that the Charlestown yard could not be eliminated "without injury to the naval service".[15][81]

1830s to 1850s

The Upper Quarters, housing non-commissioned officers, was completed in 1833.[39][82] Due to granite shortages and inclement weather, work on the dry dock (later Dry Dock 1[55]) was delayed;[83] it was finally inaugurated on 24 June 1833.[72][84] With Dry Dock 1's completion, steam-powered equipment was introduced to the yard,[83] and a pump house was built.[85] Jackson approved plans for the Charlestown Ropewalk in 1834.[86][87] The ropewalk, approval of which followed years of negotiations,[86] was placed in Charlestown because of the region's industrial, trade, and workforce advantages.[39][88] During that decade, Congress also gave the U.S. Marine Corps permission to acquire land for a new barracks near the Navy Yard, which never happened.[33] The ropewalk opened in 1837[39][89] and initially supplied rope for the entire Navy.[39][90] Other buildings, including hemp, tar, and engine houses, were built to support the ropewalk's operations.[88][91] By later that decade, the new Dry Dock 1 was already too small for ships such as Fulton.[85]

Additional land was filled in the 1840s,[50] and several roads were paved during that time.[78][92] The perimeter wall was also expanded to surround the entire yard, and another entrance was built.[93] By then, Charlestown Navy Yard was a major facility for the Navy,[85][94] maintaining the Navy's wooden-hulled ships. Only one wharf could accommodate long ships, so the Navy added two more wharves during that decade, each with various ancillary buildings.[85] As power demands increased, coal sheds were erected as well.[78] During the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), activity increased,[76] with 700 workers by 1846.[95] Ten ships involved in the war were serviced at Charlestown,[76] and additional storage and workshop buildings were constructed to support the war effort.[85] When shipbuilding slowed down after the war, the Navy allowed private ships to use Dry Dock 1.[85] The Navy built the Carpenters and Joiners Shop in 1849,[96] and successive commandants remodeled the grounds around their house.[97]

By the early 1850s, Gleason's Pictorial described Charlestown Navy Yard as having three shiphouses, two storehouses, a parade grounds, and a landscape with tree-lined avenues.[97][98] Charlestown Navy Yard remained a busy facility[76] and employed up to 900 people throughout the year.[98] After Parris's 1852 death, Billings oversaw subsequent construction.[80] During the mid-1850s, the Navy constructed an octagonal muster house,[99][100] a new Gate 4,[99] and a pitch house.[96] Dry Dock 1 was also expanded and its pump replaced. A machine shop complex was also added starting in 1855,[80][101] allowing the yard to install and repair ship engines.[102] The yard was retrofitted with natural gas illumination the next year.[103] The Navy also renovated numerous buildings, lengthened the fences, paved more roads, and landscaped the yard. In addition, it dredged the rivers outside the yard in 1857.[99] Ultimately, the yard underwent $250,000 in upgrades during that decade, funded by Congress.[93][104]

1860s and 1870s

Activity increased again during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The yard built 17, launched 23, and converted 40 vessels for wartime use, in addition to repairing over a hundred more vessels.[93][105] Various temporary buildings were constructed at the yard.[99] In 1862, the Navy laid water pipes[106] and installed hydrants, replacing older wells.[80] Shortly thereafter, workers constructed the yard's railroad system.[80][107][108] Other new facilities during the war included a heavy hammer house,[108] a joiners shop–paint loft, ordnance store, and upgrades to the machine shop.[108][109] The Navy also acquired White's Wharf and two buildings west of the existing complex.[108][110] Ship construction proceeded slowly, and in 1866 the Navy canceled work on the remaining incomplete vessels.[108] Under Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, after the war, the yard's workforce and activities were scaled back, and stockpiles were sold.[111] The yard was downgraded to an equipment and recruit facility.[112] By 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives was considering closing the yard, citing its limited area and the region's increasing demand for industrial waterfront space.[113] The next year, a U.S. Navy board proposed a new master plan that included constructing three dry docks, various shops, and residential quarters; moving the ropewalk to the Chelsea Naval Hospital; and obtaining the Mystic Flats to the east.[108]

The yard encompassed 75 acre by 1870.[114] Through that decade, Charlestown Navy Yard declined as maintenance lagged, though the yard remained an important repair and ropemaking facility.[108][114] Nine buildings (four of which were temporary) were built during the decade, while other temporary structures were removed.[114] The Navy also destroyed several incomplete vessels, including Virginia (1825), which had been under construction for a half-century by then.[115] By then, the public could enter the yard except on Sundays.[116] Upgrades in the early 1870s included a new shiphouse,[108][117] a scale house,[118][119] and an experimental timber-bending mill.[115][120] The complex had four wooden wharves, which needed constant upkeep.[117] The tree-lined streets, parade ground, lawn, and waterfront "Flirtation Walk" were popular among the public.[121] The yard became part of Boston in 1874, when that city annexed Charlestown.[114] By mid-decade, the yard employed only 226 people, its workforce having been reduced over 80% in three years;[115] the yard was reported in a state of disrepair, and the roads were mostly unpaved.[122] The Navy installed a wood treatment plant in 1877,[115][123] the functionality of which The New York Times called questionable at best.[115][124]

1880s and 1890s

Four workshops and three storage sheds were built during the 1880s.[116] The complex retained facilities for wooden ships—including a wet-timber dock and sail loft—and oxen still transported timber through the yard. Some facilities, such as an iron-plate mill and a coaling wharf, had been built for steel-hulled ships.[116] Several damaged or incomplete ships inhabited the yard's "Rotten Row",[116][125] and an 1880 fire damaged several buildings near the ropewalk.[126] An attempt to close the yard in 1882 elicited outcry.[127][128] Local residents disputed the U.S. government's ownership of the land,[129] though the Navy said all previous landowners had given up their ownership claims.[19] That year, Congress passed legislation allowing the Navy Secretary's office to suspend operations at yards where continued operation was infeasible;[128] this allowed the Navy to drastically reduce funding for Charlestown Navy Yard and relocate its equipment to other navy yards.[115] Secretary William E. Chandler suspended all activities at Charlestown, except rope and sail manufacturing, in June 1883.[114][130][131] Afterward, the ropewalk was the main facility keeping the yard open.[88] Further money-saving measures reduced the workforce to 40 by 1884.[132] In 1887, Charlestown became a "general manufacturing yard" for equipment, specializing particularly in anchors, sails, rope, and chains.[130][133] By then, employment had increased again to 260.[15][134]

Some wharves were repaired during the late 1880s, and repairs of both civilian craft and older naval vessels took place.[130] Nonetheless, in 1889, Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy reported that the yard was in poor condition, with unpaved roads, rotting buildings, a barely-functioning dry dock, and one usable wharf.[116][135] Two-fifths of the complex's 88 buildings were wooden structures (many dating from the Civil War), and entire sections of the complex were unusable.[135] One writer from the Boston Daily Globe wrote that, even as Congress was considering new navy yards, Boston Navy Yard had received fewer commissions than other shipyards.[136] Significant upgrades finally took place from the 1890s onward,[122][137] though one historian retrospectively called these improvements slapdash and sometimes fleeting.[118][138] At the time, the yard was organized into eight departments and also included a receiving ship, prison, and Marine detachment.[139] Congress allocated $152,000 in 1890, which was used to upgrade several buildings.[118][140] Initially, appropriations were allocated only for minor repairs,[130] allowing the Navy to pave more roads, replace water pipes, and add a sewage system and electric lighting.[117] Congressional appropriations also allowed the Navy to restore equipment.[141]

Congressional legislation for a new dry dock was introduced in 1894; by then, Navy Yard officials perceived the existing Dry Dock 1 as too small.[142] The yard's overcrowded naval prison was upgraded that year,[143] and employment gradually increased.[15] During the Spanish–American War in 1898, the Navy attempted once again to modernize Boston Navy Yard,[144] and public access was temporarily restricted.[145] The workforce tripled from 500 to 1,500.[146][130] Several old buildings were demolished,[118] and the Navy suggested using Boston Navy Yard as a repair facility for torpedo boats.[147] It also awarded a contract to build Dry Dock 2, construction of which was delayed by accidents and the contractor's bankruptcy.[148] The complex still had difficulties repairing the Navy's newest vessels,[144] and the yard's chief engineer wanted $367,000 for various upgrades.[149] Further legislation in 1899 provided funding for four dry docks nationwide; the legislation allowed up to one granite dry dock, which Secretary John Davis Long decided should be built at Boston.[150]

Early 20th century

In the early 20th century, the complex was modernized to accommodate larger, diesel-powered vessels and destroyers. In addition to the new dry dock and piers, about 80 buildings were added from 1898 to 1931,[146] including 40 before 1914.[151] After World War I, the Navy acquired several annexes, including Lockwood's Basin and South Boston Naval Annex.[152] Boston Navy Yard's commandant also supervised facilities in nearby towns, including Chelsea Naval Hospital and ammunition and niter storage depots.

1900s and 1910s

During the 1900s, shipbuilding activities restarted at Boston Navy Yard,[153][154] which then employed about 2,000 people.[26][155] The Navy carried out upgrades, including rebuilding the railroad system,[156] adding movable cranes,[156][157] constructing a utility tunnel,[157][158] and adding electric and telephone service.[159] Existing piers were expanded or rebuilt,[145][150] and piers 3–6 and 4A were constructed.[145][160] The reconstruction of Pier 1 had required the demolition of several structures, and the Navy built a coaling plant and a radio tower there.[161] The Navy also renumbered the piers[162] and the street grid.[163][158] Many older buildings in the Lower Yard, including the shiphouses, were razed for new development,[164] while outdoor ordnance-storage "parks" in the Upper Yard were replaced with tennis courts.[157] Equipment was also upgraded.[155]

The spar shop burned down in 1900, one of several fires at the yard in the early 20th century;[165] the carpenter's shop subsequently burned in 1910.[161][165] New buildings in the 1900s were largely made of fireproof materials such as brick, granite, and limestone.[151][166] These structures, which comprised three-quarters of new construction before 1914,[151] are attributed to the Bureau of Yards and Docks.[164][166] Development in the early and mid-1900s included a power plant[164][167] and assorted structures such as workshops, a pitch house, and a toilet.[168] Dry Dock 2 opened in 1905,[145][169] and an associated pump house, docks, and crane tracks were completed at that time.[145][170] Buildings such as the equipment and machine shops were modified,[157] and the Navy relocated other buildings and repaired Dry Dock 1.[145] The Navy added an administration building and a gate to the Upper Yard. In the late 1900s, it also expanded the hemp house, ropewalk,[157] marine barracks, and shell house.[171] Additions in the early 1910s included a wireless station tower[161][172] and an officer's quarters.[39] The yard had ten piers with nine cranes by 1914,[145][162] and the complex was still a popular visitor attraction and a major manufacturing facility.[173] However, the yard was working at only one-fourth capacity,[174] and the Navy had considered closing it.[175] The onset of World War I quintupled employment between 1915 and 1919, during which the workforce grew from 2,500 to 12,844.[153][176] Boston Navy Yard became a significant site for the conversion of civilian vessels to military use.[153][177] It was also a supply depot and port of embarkation, used by 50 vessels daily on average.[178] The Navy developed 36 structures (including seven temporary structures) during that time.[174][161] Most of the new structures were storage buildings,[161] alleviating what a naval commission had called an "alarming" lack of storage.[179] A marine railway, used for hull inspections, was constructed in 1918–1919.[180][161][181] Other structures completed in the late 1910s included a bandstand,[171] a scale house,[161] and the first general storehouse at Building 149.[179][182] After the war, the Navy planned to continue operations at Boston Navy Yard.[183]

1920s and 1930s

Relatively little work took place immediately following World War I,[24][161] and the yard received few new structures.[161] A detailed 1921 study of the yard's facilities found dozens of industrial structures, two dry docks, eleven piers, and eleven cranes.[184] The yard's staff, which numbered 5,865 that year,[185] was reduced to less than 3,000 by 1922.[26][176] Manufacturing of cast steel chains was moved to Norfolk in 1921,[186] and after the yard completed Whitney two years later, shipbuilding also subsided.[187] Modifications during the 1920s consisted mostly of repairs and machinery installations,[188][189] along with some recreational facilities.[188][184] Due to funding shortfalls, the Navy conducted only essential repairs on facilities such as the piers, foundry, and power plant.[189] Some temporary structures were moved to the South Boston Naval Annex,[190][188] while others were demolished or relocated within Charlestown Navy Yard.[184] The power plant was upgraded,[189][191] the perimeter wall was partly replaced,[191][192] and some wooden piers were rebuilt.[193] New buildings during the late 1920s included a pump house[189][191] and a garage.[188] After Boston Navy Yard's civilian employees devised a hardier die-lock chain (which became Navy standard), the yard began manufacturing chains again.[186] Employment had dwindled to 1,580 by 1929.[185]

Shipbuilding resumed in 1931, when Boston Navy Yard was contracted to construct destroyers,[188][194][195] though the Navy was also considering closing the yard by then.[196][197] The closure did not occur at the time, but the threat remained for years.[197] Several facilities underwent modifications early in the decade, including the piers, marine railway, forge shop, and headhouse.[193] The Navy constructed the destroyers in the dry docks;[194][198] most destroyers were built in Dry Dock 2 and completed in Dry Dock 1, while ship repairs were conducted ashore.[198][199] The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 enabled the Navy to finance ship construction and upgrade some facilities.[200] From the mid-1930s onward, Works Progress Administration (WPA) forces extensively overhauled the complex.[201] On the waterfront, they rebuilt several buildings; repaired the dry docks, marine railway, and Pier 1; and constructed a gas station and pipe shop.[199] In the Upper Yard, WPA laborers modified the commandant's and officers' quarters, and they erected garages and upgraded tennis courts.[202] The complex's railroad was rebuilt again. The roads were also repaved, and new diesel locomotives and cranes replaced outdated equipment.[203] Shipyard workers established a newsletter in 1936, which ran until 1974.[204]

Mid-20th century

Early and mid-1940s: World War II

At the outbreak of World War II (1939–1945), Boston Navy Yard had 3,900 employees.[24][205] While the yard was generally in good condition, some facilities (including the railroad) needed work, and the shipbuilding facilities were seriously inadequate.[199] In September 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a national emergency,[206][207] and the yard was closed to the public.[25][208] Employment reached 18,200 by 1841 as wartime activities escalated.[205] At the peak of World War II, the complex employed about 50,000 people,[205][207][209] who worked in three eight-hour shifts by 1942.[207] The yard had thousands of women and non-white staff for the first time.[206] During the war, Boston Navy Yard built about 300, converted 74, outfitted about 1,100, and repaired over 3,000 vessels.[205] In addition, it commissioned 120 ships built elsewhere,[205] mostly at other New England shipyards.[210] The Navy spent $15 million upgrading Boston Navy Yard and $35 million on the annexes throughout the war.[211]

To increase shipbuilding capacity, the Navy announced plans for two new shipways in 1940;[212] when they were completed the next year, the Navy moved shipbuilding activities there.[202][211] The piers were reconfigured and rebuilt.[199][213] The marine railway was rebuilt,[213] outdated buildings were demolished, new cranes were installed, and a garage in the adjacent neighborhood was acquired.[202] In the upper yard, the Navy erected Building 198 as temporary storage.[202][206] The influx in staff required new personnel facilities, including a personnel building[206][214] and new toilets and lockers.[215] The Lower Yard received 12 new structures,[215] including a second storehouse, electrical shop, public works building, and garage.[216] Other buildings were modified or demolished,[216] Flirtation Walk was razed,[217] and the Upper Yard's bandstand was replaced.[218]

With insufficient room at Charlestown to accommodate all the Navy's activities, several annexes were acquired or upgraded,[217][219] and many repair activities were moved to the South Boston Annex.[214][219] This allowed the Charlestown complex to focus on ship conversion and construction.[220] Under the Lend-Lease Act, it built vessels used by the allied British Royal Navy.[221] One of the shipways became Dry Dock 5 in 1944;[213][199] by then, employment and defense-related activities were both decreasing.[222]

Late 1940s and 1950s

After World War II, Charlestown (Boston) Navy Yard was officially renamed Boston Naval Shipyard,[217] and drastic drawdowns brought employment to about 16,000 by 1946.[26][223] The grounds were partly reopened to the public,[25] and due to overcrowding and intensive use, many structures needed repair.[224] The yard finished several craft already underway, and its staff oversaw the decommissioning of nearby military facilities.[217][225] The complex also handled vessel repairs and deactivations,[217] though no new vessels started construction.[225] In the decade after World War II, Boston Naval Shipyard converted over 1,000 ships[226] and became particularly known for overhauling destroyers.[227] In 1947, the Navy formally designated Boston Navy Yard as a facility for vessel "construction, docking, overhaul, and alteration";[225][228] the yard was initially tasked with handling smaller ships, but its official purpose was later expanded to include larger craft such as aircraft carriers.[228][229] Boston Naval Shipyard's purpose remained little changed until its deactivation,[225][228] and the threat of closure persisted during the mid-20th century.[229]

The Navy devised a master plan for the yard in 1948.[229][230] The plan—which involved extensively overhauling, demolishing, or constructing dozens of buildings—went largely unrealized.[230] Due to funding shortages, the Navy repaired existing facilities instead,[229] and few changes were ultimately made.[231] In the late 1940s, the Navy added tennis courts,[218][231] rebuilt two dry docks, extended Dock 1, and added a saluting battery and explosives bunker.[231] The yard continued manufacturing ship equipment,[232] and during the Korean War (1950–1953), the yard outfitted many vessels with radar and sonar equipment.[233] The Navy converted one building into a sonar facility, a function later moved to South Boston.[227][233] Four piers were also replaced.[231][233][234] Other new facilities included a chapel,[235] grit hopper, and fuel tank,[233] alongside new machinery for the Forge and Chain Shop.[232][236] The Navy considered overhauling submarines at Boston Naval Shipyard, but Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina ultimately assumed these functions instead.[228][231]

In the mid-1950s, the federal government proposed closing the Ropewalk and Chain Forge; the plan attracted opposition[237] and was eventually withdrawn.[236][238] The Navy also expanded the dispensary; rebuilt the foundry and the Electronics & Electrical Building;[239] and demolished two buildings and the main gate.[240] Shipway 1 was rebuilt that decade,[236] and a parking area was built.[233][240] The 1948 master plan continued to be updated, albeit with less extensive changes than before.[231] The yard also began focusing on rehabilitating and overhauling existing vessels.[241][242] From 1959 onward, it conducted Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhauls.[227] During the late 1950s and early 1960s, a concrete speaker's platform and new landscaping, including a baseball field, were added to the Upper Yard.[218] Large swathes of open space were paved over as demand for parking increased.[233] Most available open space was used for parking, so very little greenery remained by the late 1950s.[243]

1960s and 1970s: Final years, closure

Further development of Boston Naval Shipyard subsided in the 1960s.[240][243] Dry Dock 2 was overhauled in 1961,[240] and only five new buildings were completed from 1963 to 1973.[243] Among the new structures were another grit hopper.[233] Closure of the shipyard was again contemplated in the early 1960s, under defense secretary Robert S. McNamara,[15][244] but President John F. Kennedy intervened.[245] McNamara dropped plans to close the yard in 1963,[246] shuttering two other yards instead.[247] The shipyard continued to repair, retrofit, and overhaul vessels,[243] despite no longer building warships.[236] Congress members also proposed making the yard a nuclear research center.[248] The Machine Shop was expanded in the late 1960s; this was the shipyard's final significant construction project before its closure.[240]

A master plan, which proposed consolidating operations at South Boston, was proposed in 1968.[249] The proposal called for selling the Charlestown complex to the Massachusetts Port Authority,[249] but ultimately, this proposal was not funded.[250] By 1970, the yard employed 7,400 people. Boston Naval Shipyard had become costly to operate[247][251] and mainly existed to support a fleet based at Newport, Rhode Island.[252] It also was incapable of maintaining the Navy's nuclear-powered fleet or accommodating larger vessels such as the Forrestal.[247] The administration of President Richard Nixon wanted to close Boston Navy Yard entirely, but it deferred a decision on the yard's closure in early 1971.[253] The marine railway, deemed no longer operable,[243] was deactivated that year. The Ropewalk, the last remaining such facility in the U.S. Navy, closed that December.[236][254] Even so, as late as 1972, the Navy had prepared plans to modernize the yard.[247][250]

The Nixon administration announced plans in April 1973 to close the Boston yard entirely.[255][252][256] Amid allegations that the closure was politically motivated,[247][256] the administration cited the need to reduce excess military capacity after the U.S. withdrawal from the Vietnam War.[257] By then, Boston Naval Shipyard employed 5,228 civilians and about 150 military personnel.[258][252] Though U.S. senators Edward Brooke and Ted Kennedy fought to keep the yard open,[259] worker layoffs began in August 1973,[260] and the Marines departed in May 1974.[35] The yard was formally deactivated on 1 July 1974,[255][261][262] after which only a few security staff remained on site.[263] The disused complex had ten piers and a myriad of buildings.[255] That October, U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill unsuccessfully requested that the yard be reopened.[264] Local residents were ambivalent about the closure, as such a move had been contemplated repeatedly, and the neighborhood was gentrifying.[265]

1970s: Early efforts

When the complex closed, there were efforts to save Constitution, which by act of Congress was required to remain in Boston.[257][266][267] The Navy initially suggested creating a national park comprising Constitution and Boston Navy Yard.[268] The Navy devised an interim plan, temporarily using two buildings for Constitution crew and the new USS Constitution Museum.[269] The final plan for the area, released in late 1973, involved designating part of the complex near Constitution as the National Naval Park. Other buildings along the park's periphery would have been subject to easements.[270] The National Naval Park site was ultimately included in the Boston National Historical Park in late 1974,[271] and the National Park Service (NPS) provided $11.5 million for the site.[272] The NPS took over its portion of the yard on 1 January 1976.[273][274] The NPS retrofitted eleven buildings with gas boilers and added fences around its land,[274] and it removed many of the Lower Yard's structures.[275] The Navy formed the USS Constitution Maintenance and Repair Group in July 1976;[255] this group leased much of the NPS's land for continued maintenance of Constitution, while other buildings were leased to various governmental and private tenants.[276]

Meanwhile, government officials wanted to quickly find another use for the rest of the complex.[277] The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), the municipal agency in charge of redevelopment, expressed interest in saving architecturally, historically, and technologically significant structures.[267] Proposals included having private firms use the yard's equipment,[278] or convert the complex into an industrial complex,[279] a campus for the Kennedy Presidential Library,[280] or a construction yard for oil tankers.[281] The Massachusetts government attempted to acquire the rest of the yard,[282] and developer Società Generale Immobiliare (SGI) expressed interest in developing housing there.[283] The Boston Shipbuilding Company also bid for the site,[261][284] but the city refused to financially support the bid, which failed.[285][286] The BRA published various master plans for the site.[286][287] By 1976, the BRA planned 1,000 housing units and a variety of office, hotel, commercial, and institutional space; these goals changed repeatedly over the following years.[286] The Navy also gave the BRA Dry Dock 2 that year after flooding it.[288]

The BRA appointed SGI to redevelop part of the remaining site in February 1977.[289] SGI subsidiary Immobiliare New England planned to redevelop the complex with a marina and a 16 acre park,[290] along with 1,300 condominium apartments.[291] The federal government gave $12.5 million for the redevelopment[291] and $2.6 million for a waterfront park.[292] Federal officials donated around 30 acre to the BRA in 1977–1978,[293][294] along with 16 acre for the park, for a nominal fee.[295] By then, parts of the complex were being cleared,[296] and the utilities and streets were rebuilt.[296] The BRA was negotiating to acquire the remaining land,[297] and in February 1979, SGI gave the BRA $1.7 million to buy another 57 acre.[290][291] Work was delayed by disputes over the site's title,[298] which were not resolved until May 1979, when the Port Authority ceded its claim to the site.[299] The same month, the BRA took title to the site,[294][299] and construction began on the first building.[299][300]

1980s and 1990s

The NPS renovated several of its buildings through the 1980s,[301] while on the BRA side, developers signed long-term leases for the historic buildings.[296][295] Congress transferred three additional buildings to the NPS in 1980,[288][302] including Building 107.[270][302] Later that year, the NPS released its General Management Plan for the management of its section.[288][303] The plan, which stipulated strict preservation regulations for many buildings, drew a variety of criticism.[303] Shipyard Park was completed as well,[304][305] replacing Building 195.[305] The destroyer Cassin Young was loaned to the NPS and opened as a museum ship in 1981.[306][307] Work initially progressed slowly,[300] with nine buildings refurbished during the 1980s.[296] The first of these projects, the conversion of Building 42 to a rental apartment building,[304] was finished in 1981.[308] The BRA began constructing a marina at Pier 4 the same year[305][309] and advertised additional sites for development in the early 1980s.[310][300] The development's first new buildings, a group of townhouses, began construction in 1983 and were quickly sold out.[311] The Congress Group was selected in 1984 to redevelop buildings 149 and 199 into office space,[312] and work on the first elderly-housing development began that year.[313]

The NPS made other changes to the grounds, including paving streets, relocating the perimeter wall, closing two gates to vehicles, and demolishing two buildings.[314] Gate 4 was also expanded,[315][314] and the NPS re-landscaped the Upper Yard.[275] The BRA renovated two piers as well.[316] The Navy Yard's first office lease was signed with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) in 1986.[317][318] After buildings 149 and 199 were renovated in 1986,[319][320] Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) leased Building 149.[318][320] Concurrently, Basilica Associates began redeveloping Building 106, the first project in the yard's Historic Monument Area.[321] By then, the BRA had approved redevelopment plans for several buildings,[322] and the Congress Group also planned a botanical garden.[323] Developer Neil St. John Raymond had acquired a majority stake in the Congress Group's buildings[320] and Immobiliare New England by 1986.[324] He canceled the botanical garden and announced plans to convert more buildings into residences. By then, 27 projects were underway, and developers had been selected for all existing buildings except the Ropewalk.[324] Although the NPS and BRA did select a developer for the Ropewalk and Chain Forge in the mid-1980s, that project encountered various delays over subsequent decades.[325]

Raymond established companies to provide mortgage loans for residents[326] and to lease Building 149 to research tenants.[327] During the late 1980s, the NPS removed the marine railway,[301] and it published a modified General Management Plan with less stringent preservation stipulations, approved in 1987.[303][288] The BRA and Raymond created a master plan for the complex's eastern section, known as "Yard's End".[286][328] The final Yard's End plan—which included a new hotel, parking, and a new location for the New England Aquarium—was enacted in 1990 despite local opposition.[329][330] The aquarium indefinitely postponed its relocation plans the next year,[331] and most of the Yard's End plan was not subsequently executed.[329]

Work on the Armed Services YMCA, one of the complex's few new buildings,[318] commenced in 1991.[332] Early in the decade, the NPS upgraded Dry Dock 1,[301] and MGH expanded to other buildings in the yard.[318][333] During that decade, another seven BRA buildings were renovated,[296] and the NPS conducted various roof repairs and repaved roads.[301] The BRA also added a Korean War veterans' memorial to Shipyard Park, completed in 1993.[305][316] By the mid-1990s, the Boston Navy Yard redevelopment had created 2 e6ft2 of commercial space and 990 residences;[300] most of the new commercial space was used as offices.[334] The new residences, which included both new buildings and conversions of existing structures, were largely condominiums.[335] Developer Martin Oliner announced plans in 1997 for a new apartment building at the complex.[335][336] The NPS opened a new visitor center that year and repaved the roads on its land in 1999–2000.[301][314]

2000s to present

During the 2000s, the NPS replaced several other roofs,[301] added anti-vehicular bollards to protect Constitution from terrorist attacks,[314] and refurbished numerous buildings.[337][338] On the BRA side, Building 114 was renovated into a biomedical lab in 2001,[339] and the Ropewalk was damaged in a 2002 fire.[325][340] The BRA subsequently tried to redevelop the Ropewalk,[341] but various attempts to do so were unsuccessful.[325] A new NPS visitor center opened at Building 5 in 2008.[342][343] That year, Building 33 became the first office-to-residential conversion in the Historic Monuments Area, and Oliner's apartment building, Harborview, opened after 11 years of development.[335] By 2009, four buildings were still awaiting redevelopment because of the extreme difficulty of renovating them.[344] By then, the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital had been considering a new clinic there for several years.[345][346]

The Spaulding Clinic opened in 2013,[347][348] following cleanup of that site.[346] By then, piers 6 and 8 had become severely deteriorated, and the state government wanted Oliner, its owner, to repair them.[349] Plans for redeveloping the Ropewalk were revived in 2016,[350] and the building was converted to apartments over the next five years.[351][352] The federal government provided $3 million to renovate several NPS buildings in 2018,[353] and the same year, BRA successor Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) published proposals for further development of the complex.[354] The NPS also began outreach to local residents; at the time, the yard had a million annual visitors, but the Tobin Bridge separated it from the rest of Charlestown.[355] The Anchor beer garden opened there in 2019.[356] Building 108, which was supposed to be renovated, was instead demolished in 2022,[357] with a biomedical lab being planned on its site.[358] The next year, the NPS restored the yard's perimeter wall.[359] By 2025, redevelopment plans for the Chain Forge were pending,[360] and the BPDA approved tentative plans to redevelop Pier 5 that December.[361]

Infrastructure

There are asphalt roads through the yard,[365] which are given numeric designations; avenues run west–east and streets run north–south.[163][158] The yard's main artery is First Avenue, which separates the Upper and Lower yards in the north from the waterfront section in the south. Fifth Street divides the Upper Yard to the west and Lower Yard to the east.[365] The Upper and Lower yards are laid out in a grid, drawn up as part of the 1828 master plan. The grid's blocks are occupied mostly by buildings or parking lots, though there are small amounts of green space, including between buildings 58 and 107. The shoreline itself had a boardwalk, the "Flirtation Walk", until World War II.[371] Brick walkways lead from Quarters G, the commandant's house in the Upper Yard.[372] Boston Navy Yard was originally served by its own set of tracks.[373][374] Proposed as early as the 1840s,[78][375] the rail network was not utilized until 1863[107] or 1865.[80][108] The tracks were connected to the U.S. railroad system via a spur of the Fitchburg Railroad[80] (later used by the Boston and Maine Railroad).[373] The network, spanning 1417 yd by 1869,[80][376] was comprehensively rebuilt in 1902 and 1937.[377] A report from 1983 found that the yard had 6300 ft of standard gauge tracks.[378] Additional tracks ran along First Avenue and on the docks,[371][373] ending at Fifth Street, where there was a track scale and a concrete pad.[379] The tracks were mostly removed in the 1970s,[296] and the few remaining stretches of track were unusable by the 21st century.[380]

About 1000 ft of the trackage was dual gauge, shared with movable cranes[373] with a gauge of 20 ft.[145][157] Each crane weighed 40 ST and ran along the dry docks.[156][145] The tracks contain two or three non-operable portal cranes.[381][379]

Boston Navy Yard also contains Marine Railway 11 (originally Dry Dock 3, then Dry Dock 4[181]), constructed in 1918–1919 between piers 2 and 3.[181][382] The marine railway, which allowed ships to be pulled out for hull inspections,[383][384] slopes down at a rate of 7/96.[385] Marine Railway 11 was served by an approximately 52 by wooden cradle with machinery,[382][386] which was removed in 1995.[386] It ran on three rails, with a 15 ft gap between the central rail and each outer rail,[382][386] but has not been operational since 1971.[386][387] The infrastructure also included large cisterns, dating from before the complex's water system was built.[388]

Wall and gates

Alexander Parris's 1820s granite wall runs along Boston Navy Yard's northern edge at Chelsea Street (formerly Salem Turnpike).[66][67][389] The granite wall originally measured 2400 ft long and 9 ft high, with foundations 3 ft deep and a coping atop it.[389][390] Much of the wall still remains,[359] but part of the wall near the Ropewalk was replaced in the early 20th century with a granite-and-wrought iron fence.[58][371] Other parts of the wall have been removed or incorporated into other buildings,[58] and a short section was moved in the early 1980s.[359][391] When ownership was split between the NPS and BRA in 1976, Gates 1 and 2 led to the NPS section, while Gate 5 was the only direct access point to the BRA section.[303]

Open spaces

A Marine parade ground is located in front of the Marine barracks.[35][392] The parade ground has evergreen trees and box hedges at its periphery, along with a horseshoe-shaped asphalt loop.[392] A retaining wall in the parade ground, surrounds a water tank. A Japanese-style Torii gate is at the parade ground's northern end.[393] For most of its history, the 1.35 acre surrounding the parade ground have been part of the Navy Yard; the land was controlled by U.S. Marine Corps between 1964 and 1974.[33]

The redeveloped shipyard contains Charlestown Naval Shipyard Park, a rectangle spanning 12 acre[394] or 16 acre.[294][368] It has playgrounds and fountains juxtaposed with landscape features such as meadows.[368][395] The park also includes a pavilion (adapted from a former building) and an adjacent marina.[395]

Buildings

Extant buildings

Many buildings remain from the Navy Yard's use as a military facility.[397] The below list includes buildings in Boston National Historical Park. The 1970s redevelopment proposal also mandated that twenty-one buildings in the Historic Monument Area, six buildings in the New Development Area, and one building in the Shipyard Park area be preserved.[367] The Historic Monument Area buildings date mostly from the 19th century and contain a combined 2000000 ft2.[294]

Buildings constructed after decommissioning

Former buildings

The following is a non-exhaustive list of notable former buildings at Charlestown (Boston) Navy Yard.[397] Among the former structures were four shiphouses, all destroyed by 1906.[50] When Boston Navy Yard was an active military installation, various receiving ships were used as temporary barracks until 1933, when a receiving building was built ashore.[115]

Piers, dry docks, and slipways

The oldest piers, White Wharf and Shear's Wharf, are at Boston Navy Yard's western end. Originally officially labeled as "wharves", they were expanded and relabeled as "piers" in the early 20th century.[396] The piers were assigned numbers in 1900,[162] labeled 1–11 from west to east. Three piers are preserved by the NPS:[396]

Other notable wharves included piers 3 and 4, which measured 60 ft wide and flanked Dry Dock 2; piers 5 and 6, which measured 70 ft wide; and Pier 10, which connected with the receiving ship.[160]

Boston Navy Yard also has three dry docks numbered 1, 2, and 5 (dry docks 3 and 4 are located in the South Boston Naval Annex).[396][452]

• Pier 1 (1901), a trapezoidal pier measuring 670 by across. It has a battery, ammunition bunker, and grit hoppers, and formerly had several buildings including a coal-handling plant.[405] Three electric capstans on Pier 1, each about 3 ft tall, are preserved as part of Boston National Historical Park.[408] There are also three floodlight towers (structures 238–240).[379]
• Pier 2 (1906), measuring 500 by across, with railroad tracks.[408] A marginal wharf, with a timber bulkhead and piers, connected with Pier 3 from c. 1900 until the Marine Railway was built in 1919; part of the marginal wharf survives.[386]
• Finger Pier (1946, relocated 1962), a concrete L-shaped pier, parallels Pier 1.[386]

Ships exhibited

Boston Navy Yard hosts two ships, USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young (DD-793), which are tied up at Pier 1 and open to the public.[507] Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), a frigate launched in 1797, is the oldest still-commissioned warship in the world.[508][509] Because she is commissioned, Constitution is not technically a museum ship; she sails around the harbor multiple times annually.[509] Cassin Young, a Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned in 1943,[510] is used exclusively as a museum ship.[511][512] Dry Dock 1 is still used for maintenance of Constitution and Cassin Young.[513]

Transportation

The MBTA subway's City Square station, closed in 1975,[516] was just outside the yard.[517] In 1987, a temporary ferry began traveling from Pier 4 to Downtown Boston's Long Wharf to alleviate traffic congestion.[518] The ferry was later made permanent,[518][519] becoming the MBTA ferry's Charlestown route.[520] From 1988 to 1997, the MBTA bus system operated a shuttle route within the yard.[521][522] The Navy Yard is also served by some trips on the 93 bus[521][522] and by private shuttles operated by the yard's employers.[521][523] The complex includes both parking garages (including one with 1,300 spaces) and on-street parking.[521]