Boston Naval Shipyard 5

f 3rm 10-81T TSept. 1957) UNITED STATES EPARTMENT OF THE INTERIO NATIONAL, PARK SERVICE NATIONAL SURVEY OF HISTORIC SITES AND BUILDINGS t. STATE 2. THEMECS). IF ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE. WRITE "ARCH" BEFORE THEME NO. Massachusetts 3. NAME(S) OF SITE 4. APPROX. ACREAGE Boston Naval Shipyard 5. EXACT LOCATION (County, township, roads, etc. If difficult to find, sketch on Supplementary Sheet) Water Street, Boston______6. NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRESENT OWNER (Also administrator if different from owner) Department of the Navy; Paul H. Nitze^ Secretary______7. IMPORTANCE AND DESCRIPTION (Describe briefly what makes site important and what remains are extant) The Boston Naval Shipyard, one of the Nation's oldest naval dockyards, has for over 150 years built, repaired and serviced vessels. The installation, furthermore, has established several precedents, some of which possess both national and international significance. Since its birth near 1800, the yard has expanded over a large section in the historic Charleston section of Boston. A Congressional resolve of January 25, 1797, recom mending an appropriation for a shipyard in Boston is apparently the first action taken concerning the installation. About three years later, the United States purchased twenty-three acres of land on the waterfront in Charles town, the purchase of 1800 cost $19,350 and included Moult on's Point, where General William Howe and his troops had landed on June 17, 1775, before the battle of Bunker Hill, the developneat of the yard was underway by March, 1801* By the end of the first commandant's tenure, 1811, the commandant's quarters, a brick storehouse, a marine barracks and several other structures had been completed* the navy bought additional land after 1811 and % 1840 had acquired most of the installation's present-day land. Subsequently, new land was made by filling adjacent parts of the harbor* Today, the yard covers 201 acres of land and includes 161 buildings, 21 miles of railroad, and numerous docks*, piers, and shipways* During its existence, the dockyard has been commanded by a number of naval heroes, all of whom have lived in the commandant's quarters. The first three commanding officers deserve special mention. Captain Samuel Nicholson, who supervised the yard between 1800 and his death on December 29, 1811, as its first commandant, had earlier served as the initial commander of U. S. S. Constitution. Captain William Bainbridge suc ceeded Nicholson. The new commanding officer, whose first term as the yard's commander ran from 1812 to 1815, also was in charge from 1822 to 1824, and from 1832 to 1833. Bainbridge's fame stemmed from his victory over H.M.S. Java on December 29, 1812, when II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES (Give best sources; give location of manuscripts and rare works') [Boston Naval Shipyard], "Boston Naval Shipyard," (n.p., n.d.); Justin Winsor, 'Ehe Memorial History of Boston. (4 vols., Boston, 1881).

!>. REPORTS AND STUDIES (Mention best reports and studies, as, NFS study, HABS, etc.)

}. PHOTOGRAPHS* 11. CONDITION 12. PRESENT USE (Museum, farm, etc.) 13. DATE OF VISIT ATTACHED: YES E NO Q Good Naval yard April_1965 i NAME OF RECORDER (Signature) 15. TITLE 16. DATE S. S* Bradford Historian 1/20/60 *DRY MOUNT ON AN 8 X I0}4 SHEET OF FAIRLY HEAVY PAPER. IDENTIFY BY VIEW AND NAME OF THE SITE. DATE OF PHOTOGRAPH, AND NAME OF PHOTOGRAPHER. GIVE LOCATION OF NEGATIVE. IF ATTACHED. ENCLOSE IN PROPER NEGATIVE ENVELOPES. (IF ADDITIONAL SPACE IS NEEDED USE SUPPLEMENTARY SHEET, 10-3170, AND REFER TO ITEM NUMBER)

> 7 c J 6 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

NATIONAL SURVEY OF HISTORIC SITES AND BUILDINGS SUPPLEMENTARY SHEET This sheet is to be used for giving additional information or comments, for more space for any item on the regular form, and for recording pertinent data from future studies, visitations, etc. Be brief, but use as many Supplement Sheets as necessary. When items are continued they should be listed, if possible, in numerical order of the items. All information given should be headed by the item number, its name, and the word (cont'd), as, 6. Description and Importance (cont'd) ...

STATE NAME(S) OF SITE Massachusetts Boston Naval Shipyard he commanded the Constitation. It was this combat that produced the sobriquet "Old Ironsides*1 for the Constitution. As he lay dying on July 27, 1833 9 in the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia, the brave sailor suddenly sat us and cried out for his men to board the enemy. Then death felled him. During Bairibridge's intermittent supervision, Captain Isaac Hull, who had conquered the Guerriere on August 19, 1812, while com manding the Constitution, acted as the yard's commandant. He served there ia 1812- 1813, and again between 1815 and 1823. Because of these officers 1 association with "the Constitution, it is especially appropriate that the warship is now docked at the Boston Naval Yard. During the years of the first three commandants, as well as, in the following decades, the Boston yard built and fit ted-out many ships for service. On June 26, 1803, the yard rang with nine booming cheers as the workmen celebrated the recoppering of the Constitution* Paul Revere, incidentally, had supplied the copper. Just over ten years later, on September 11, 1813, the yard launched her first ship, the eighteen-gun sloop Frolic. Subsequently, when the seventy-four gun Independence, slid into the water, the workers enjoyed a feast in the rigging loft "...and spent the day in hilarity."1 She was the yard's second ship, and was built and launched between August, 1813, and June, 1814* During the War of 1812, master carpenters received a daily wage of from $3.50 to $4.00, while ordinary laborers got $1.00 a day. Regardless of wage, all the men labored from sunrise to sunset. About forty-four years after the completion of the Independence. the yard launched the Hartford, which served as Admiral David G. Farragut fs flag ship during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Because the yard's commandant detested spiritous beverages, "...he would not allow the heathen custom of breaking a bottle of wine over the [Hartford's] bows, as a libation to the Gods of Neptune and Bacchus."2 During the Civil War, the yard was extremely busy, constructing numerous vessels and outfitting many others for the Union. Fol lowing the war, a slower pace returned to the navy yard. In 1874, the commandant received orders to demolish a ship, the Virginia, that had been oa the stocks since 1824, but that operation remained uncompleted as late as 1861. During both of the World Wars, the yard constructed and repaired many vessels. Since 1946, it has been largely engaged in conversion and repair work. In addition to the yard's decades of routine work, the installation is responsible for several innovations. On August 21, 1813, Bainbridge wrote to the Secretary of the Navy and suggested that shelters be constructed over the ways at Boston and at the Portsmouth navy yard. The idea received the Secretary's approbation on August 29, he ordering such houses to be erected in all navy yards. The first one built was at Boston, and it enabled work to progress despite ill weather. It stood until 1848. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

STATE NAME(S) OF SITE Boston Naval Shipyard Bainbridge's idea was subsequently adopted by the British at their dockyards. The British were also impressed in 1856-57 when they say the Merrimac. It was the American Navy's first screw steam frigate and had been launched at the Boston yard on June 14, 1855. She had cost $879,126, This was the vessel that the Confederacy later converted to an ironclad. In 1364* the yard launched the Monadnock, the first ironclad monitor to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. About ten years later, on March 5, 1874, the Intrepid was launched. She was the navy's first iron- hulled torpedo boat. Another important innovation at the yard was the construction of a stone dry dock. Loammi Baldwin designed and supervised the construction of two dry docks in the late 1820s, one at Norfolk and the other in Boston. The first load of stone arrived in Boston on August 23, 1827, and workmen began constructing the dock's walls the next day. By June 24, 1833, the dock was largely completed. Qa that day she received her first temporary tenant, the Constitution. With Vice-president Martin Van Buren and other notables present, the veteran ship became the second man-of-war to be dry- docked in the United States. When she emerged from the dock on June 21, 1834, only her design and dimensions remained the same. The dry dock has been lengthened since 1834, but the original section still remains in use. Present Condition of the Site Within the yard at the present time one finds an interesting mixture of the old and new. The oldest structure stands at the yard's entrance and was erected in 1803. A three-story brick building, it first was used as a storehouse and sail loft; now modernized inside, the old building houses an officers' club and bachelor officers' quarters. About five years after the construction of the preceding "building, work began on the commandant's quarters. Official records first refer to the house on July 28, 1808, when the Sevretary of the Navy forbade the expenditure of any money on the building that had not been authorized. Reputedly designed by Charles Bullfinch, the house was finished in 1809. Outside of a sunporch that was added during World War II, the building's exterior has remained relatively unchanged. In contrast, the interior has "been greatly altered over the years. Among other extant early structures are the ropewalk and Dry Dock Number 1. The ropewalk was erected in 1836. The granite building parallels Chelsea Street for 1,360 feet. Twenty years after the ropewalk's erection, a second story, 746 feet long, was added, The building has a headhouse of three stories' height, it containing the machinery for tope manufacturing. All of the rope for the navy was manufactured here for over a century. The dry dock, as previously mentioned, has been in service IChfllTtt ___ I*?) w UNITED STATES W . , . DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

STATE NAME(S)OFSITE Massachusetts Boston Naval Shipyard since 1&33. It and the dry dock at Norfolk, Virginia, were the first ones ia the Country. At the head of the dry dock is an inscription that commemorates its construction* Just in Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston. (4 vols.; Boston, 1##1), III, 343. 2 Ibid*, III, 363.

Boston National Ship Yard- April 1960 Charles town Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Photo Navy 1960 BNHP Neg. View South JUN 1 1 1979

Navy Yard Wall, West Bourdry Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUNl View South

Navy Yard Wall, South West Boundry Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. fll(u , 1 View North East . •** 1 1

Gate 2, Yard Wall, Gate 1, Building 5 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 7/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View South West JUN I'

2nd Ave. Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fea$ 7/78 MARO „ BNHP Neg. J» i ««* View North East

Gate 4 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO „,. , , BNHP Neg. JUNiil&79 View East

Ship Way 2 (at right) Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARC^ j

View North

Building 10 Crave 65 Dry Dock 1 Bldg. 24 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston Natioal Historical Park Dick Fear, 7/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View North

Building 24, Dry Dock 1, Crave 65 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUN 1 View South East

Building 197, Dry Dock 2 Bldg 125, 24 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. South East Elevation JUN 1 H "

Building 22, Building 24 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Hsitorical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUNi 11979 South West Elevations ^ u

Crame 65, Building 24 Charlestown Navy Yard B@s>ton National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO fltit JUN 1 1 1979

Building 31, Building 120 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View West

Building 32 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View East

Building 33, 2nd Ave. Building 34 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View North East ^'W 1 1

Building 34, Building 200 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. North East Elevation J J

Building 42 Charles town Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View North r Building 53, West Boundry Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO MHP Neg ' IIINil ' View South JW * L

Building 58 Charlestwon Navy Yard Boston NAtioanl Historical Park Jack Boucher Historic American Engineer! Record, H.C.R.S. U.S Dept. of Interior Interior View ;? nil

Building 60, Building 58 Charles town Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View South JUN *

Building 62, Building 60, Building 58 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Hisotrical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View South

mra T Building 67, Building 143 dharlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 7/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUN 1 1 B79 View North East

2nd Ave Building 75 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUNll View South West •*•, Bridge accross Ship way No. 1, Bldg.103 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park ' Dlck Fear, 6/78 MARO ??£ Silt

Building 79 Charles town Navy Yard Bosong National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. J( . View South JM l 1 1979

Bldg. 103, Shipway I, Bldg 105, Bldg.104 Charlestown Navy Yard Bgg'ton National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JJJN ] \ to 7p View North West 1 Building 103 Charles town Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUN 1. 1 J9/9 View South

Building 104 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. North East Elevation J' m

Building 105 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO

BNHP Neg. *J,,-, i,,'. *'. '- J .•••-': a View South West

Building 105 J(jj\{ i 1 1979 Charles town Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. South West Elevation !

'-v

(\ Building 105 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Jack Boucher, Historic American Engineering Record HCRS, U.S. Dept. of Interior, Interior View

Building 107 and 3rd Ave. Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View North East «^N 1 1 1979

Building 107 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, £/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View North

Building 108 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUN j. i View West

Building 120 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. JUN I 1 South East Elevation ISIi Building 120, Building 58 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical-Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO _ BNHP Neg. J(JN 1 t 1975 View West

Building 123 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. 5]--j * ? ' ; 9 View North East

Building 136 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park m Il|T' 6/78 m™ Jln i South West Elevation

Building 197 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 7/78 MARO BNHP Nes- m*«t < South EAst Elevation - '

Building 198 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg ^ 1 1 View East I

1 Gate 5, Building 199, Building 79 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. View East JUW 1 1

Building 199, GAte 5, Buildin 77 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO

Building 199, Bldg 62, Bldg. 149 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. < View South "" fillip v ll1* |A Building 199 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO View East JUN 1 1 1979 fir SB a

SS SS am

17:3 onf Barracks I, Parade, Building 136 Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO *-«•' BNHP Neg. View North

Barracks I Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg...... 1 7q South East Elevation

Yard Wall, Quarters G Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 6/78 MARO BNHP Neg. -•"• View South

Quarters G Charles town Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick FEar, 6/78 MARO BNGP Neg. View North West

Quarters L, M, N, 0. Charlestown Navy Yard Boston National Historical Park Dick Fear, 7/78 MARO y-g i -***. An aerial photograph of the Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, Massachusetts. The yard lies above the elevated road. Dry Dock Number 1 is on the right in the picture and the ropewalk is the long structure that parallels the elevated road in the center of the picture.

Courtesy U. S. Navy

Aerial Views of the Charlestown Navy Yard from the south, 1975. JUH i- i - f C* » *

^g* AS A HELICOPTER from the South Weymouth Naval Air Station hovered over USS Springfield CCLG-7), a pbotcgrapher made this picture of the beehive of Shipyard activity extending from Pier 7 to "Old Ironsides" at Pier L Reading from front to b,ack; the.ships visible are USS Springfield (CLG-7), USS Boston (CAG-1!, USS Perry (DD-844), USS Mitscher CDL-2), USS Albany (CG-10), USS Egret (MSCO-46),- USS Cardinal (MSCO-4),' USS Hazelwood (DD-531), USS Sky catcher (AGR-3), USS Miller (DD-535), USS Hissem CDER-400), and USS SJsylark CASE-20), i April

ALIVE WITH SHIPS was the north end of the Shipyard's wsiterfront when this aerial view was made«j3CTeifiQl Tjcaka ago. This picture shows Piers 4 through 11. Reading from front to back, the ships visible are USS Skyv^atcher CAGR-35, USS Yosemite (AD-19), USS Albany (CG-10), USS Mitscher CDL-2), TJSS P^rry CDD-844), USS Springfield CCLG-7), USS Thor (ARC-4), USS Hugh Furvis CDD-709), USS Macon (GA-132), ARD-16, and USS Wasp (CVS--18). ___ (Photograph taken 1 April 1960) . .

Dry Dock Number 1. The original portion of the dry dock begins where the cement walls end.

Courtesy U. S. Navy

NY2 9 - J~3 -

^&Q. Y

LO A ... ON

Tti ~JK&U^

View in Boston Naval Shipyard showing Bunker Hill Monument and training ship

Wabash. Photograph taken in 1900.