Boston Navy Yard

Boston Naval Shipyard
Navy Yard in the 1930s
LocationSoutheast of Chelsea Street, Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°22′34″N 71°3′9″W / 42.37611°N 71.05250°W / 42.37611; -71.05250
Built1800
ArchitectAlexander Parris, et al.
NRHP reference No.66000134[1]
Added to NRHP15 November 1966
Boston Naval Shipyard
Boston, Massachusetts
TypeShipyard
Site information
Controlled byUnited States Navy
Site history
Built1800
In use1801–1975
Naval installations in Boston in World War II
Aerial view of the Boston Navy Yard in April 1960.
The South Boston Naval Annex, circa 1958

The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. It was established in 1801 as part of the recent establishment of the new U.S. Department of the Navy in 1798. After 175 years of military service, it was decommissioned as a naval installation on 1 July 1974.

The 30-acre (12 ha) property is administered by the National Park Service, becoming part of Boston National Historical Park. Enough of the yard remains in operation to support the moored USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") of 1797, built as one of the original six heavy frigates for the revived American navy, and the oldest warship still commissioned in the United States Navy and afloat in the world. USS Cassin Young (DD-793), a 1943 World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer serving as a museum ship, is also berthed here. The museum area includes a dock which is a stop on the MBTA Boat water transport system. Among local people in the area and the National Park Service, it is still known as the Charlestown Navy Yard.[2]

The South Boston Naval Annex was located along the waterfront in South Boston, an annex of the Navy Yard from 1920 to 1974. Other annexes of the Navy Yard during World War II were the Chelsea Naval Annex (formerly the Green Shipyard, now the Fitzgerald Shipyard),[3] East Boston Naval Annex, and Boston Naval Yard Fuel Depot Annex.[4][5]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System – (#66000134)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 23 January 2007.
  2. ^ Charlestown Navy Yard, National Park Service Archived 7 December 2004 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ History of the Fitzgerald Shipyard at fitzgeraldshipyard.com
  4. ^ Charlestown Navy Yard : Boston National Historical Park, Massachusetts. Washington, DC: National Park Service. 1995. p. 64. ISBN 0912627603.
  5. ^ Boston Navy Yard in WWII at nps.gov