Cultural Landscape Report for Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston

2. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NAVY YARD, 1800 – 1828
SITE HISTORY 2. 1800-1828
For the American colonies, independence meant the loss of protection once afforded by Britain’s powerful navy. In
1793, North African pirates raided eleven American vessels, prompting Congress to enact legislation authorizing the
construction, equipping, and manning of six frigates, establishing the foundation of the Unites States Navy. Private
commercial yards built the frigates and in 1797, shortly after the USS Constitution slid down the ways at Hartt’s Yard
near Copp’s Hill in Boston, President John Adams established a separate Navy Department. First Secretary of the
Navy Benjamin Stoddert recommended naval expansion and the establishment of public shipyards to confront
French threats to American neutral shipping. 1
In early 1800 Naval Constructor Joshua Humphreys visited New England in order to evaluate potential dock sites.
While Charlestown and Noddles Island sites were considered, Humphreys concluded that Newport, Rhode Island
was the best dry-dock location, citing such favorable characteristics as “capacity of harbor, depth of water, use of
tide, expense in building docks, prices of land, facility of navigation, and capability of defense.” 2 Charlestown
residents, disappointed by Humphreys’ rejection, convened a seven-member committee to confer with landowners
identified in Humphreys’ report and to appoint a spokesman, Dr. Aaron Putnam, to plead the town’s cause to
officials in the federal capital at Philadelphia. Putnam met with President Adams in April and challenged
Humphreys’ criticism of Boston Harbor. Adams agreed that the Charlestown site should be designated one of the
six yards, with the others located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; New York; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and
Norfolk, Virginia. Beginning in May of 1800, Putman acquired a 24½-acre tract determined by Humphreys as
sufficient for both a building yard and dock. 3 For the next three decades, the yard sporadically expanded,
languished, and reorganized according to strategic and political deliberations, or in response to the immediate
demands of war. 4
SITE ACQUISITION
The site selected for the yard included Moultons Point Field, the adjacent marsh area, a portion of Moultons Hill,
and extensive tidal flats. After their first acquisition dated 26 August 1800, the Navy eventually purchased about ten
tracts of land. 5 These tracts included Ebenezer Breed’s “Point Pasture,” “Dam Pasture,” and “Marsh” for which the
United States agreed to maintain the ditch and dam. Breed retained his upland pastures and the Navy agreed to
erect fences along the new boundary. 6 The Navy also acquired pasture parcels bounded by post and rail fences
from William Calder, Richard Boyeston, Catherine Henley, and Aaron Putnam, a marsh parcel from John Larkin,
and several small building lots from John Harris, Aaron Putnam, Samuel Swan, and Nathaniel Gorham’s heirs.
EARLY ROADS AND YARD LAYOUT
In January 1801, residents at a Charlestown town meeting voted that “the roads & streets leading into and through
the lands purchased by the United States for the Navy and dock yard, be granted or exchange in such manner as will
accommodate the United States without injury to the town, or the inhabitants of the vicinity.” Four Charlestown
roads traversed the property. Battery (Water) Street ran eastward along the Charles River, terminating at the edge
1
Bearss, 2-4.
2
Bearss, 7-9.
3
Bearss, 12, 15-18.
4
Carlson, 3, Kenneth J. Hagan, In Peace and War, and Hagan, This People’s Navy: The Making of American Sea Power (New York: Free
Press, 1992).
5
Carlson, 3.
6
Bearss, 24.
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