Cultural Landscape Report for Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston

UPPER YARD
SITE HISTORY 2. 1800-1828
In 1804, the Navy selected the highest point in the yard for a residence of the superintendent of the yard, formally
known as the Commandant's House (Quarters G). Completed in 1805, the three-story brick structure was built “on
the most convenient place on the public ground and upon substantial scale” and designed to face Chelsea Street, but
also included a back porch and walkway that led directly to the waterfront. In response to Superintendent Samuel
Nicholson’s request for a garden, the Navy approved plans for the enclosure of a “small piece of ground contiguous
[west of] to the House to be built for the Superintendent for a garden,” but denied his request for a barn or stable to
shelter four cows, two horses, and a chaise for his family as well as two or three yoke of public oxen. A small barn
was eventually approved and built southeast of the house (Building 20), but a larger stable was not added until the
1820s. 13
In June 1810 the Marine Corps selected a site for a new barracks, east of the Commandant’s House and south of the
Salem Turnpike. This was the first portion of the Marine Barracks that later became “Quarters H-I-K.” 14 Plans
included excavation of a portion of the hill to the east of the Commandant’s House, designs for a garden southeast
of the barracks, two wells, and diversion of turnpike drainage through a drain near the fence. Constructed largely
by the Marines themselves, it consisted of a single-story central section containing enlisted men’s barracks and
three-story wings at each end housing officers. 15 Marine Corps Commandant Franklin Wharton’s correspondence
also suggests that the ground fronting the barracks had been graded. During the following year, Wharton gave
instructions for the laying out of a parade ground, including a provision for a “Lane or Alley between the
Commanding Officer’s garden & the Stables of the Commodore for the former & latter to use.” Wharton requested
a board fence, rather than post and rail, to enclose the barracks and parade ground. Upon completion of the project
in early August, Nicholson complained that the Marines’ parade ground, extending 305 feet along the fronts facing
the turnpike and the river, was “absolutely spoiling the Navy Yard,” but Paul Hamilton, who succeeded Smith as
Secretary of the Navy, chose not to intercede (Figure 2.3). 16
LOWER YARD
In 1802, the U.S. Treasury Department assumed control of a five-acre section of the Charlestown Navy Yard for a
marine hospital. During the latter half of the year the boundary was established at the north, or lower, end of the
yard and the area surrounding the building was designated the hospital grounds. To protect Boston Harbor, the
Army built an earthen half-moon battery, with eight gun platforms resting on stone foundations and armed with
ten-pound guns, in the lower yard in 1809 on the current site of the Sheet Metal Shop (Building 103). The War
13
Bearss, I, p. 58,89,341.
14
The Marine Barracks is considered to be the oldest Marine Barracks building in the United States. Carlson, 12. Quarters H-I-K has
been called Building I since the 1920s.
15
Over the years, this structure has undergone considerable modifications. In 1870 the original central portion was demolished and
replaced by a three-story building. Congress appropriated funds for further alterations in fiscal year 1890, and in fiscal year 1898
authorized the addition of an additional story to the structure. By 1902, it achieved its present four-story configuration. The final major
modification came in 1941, when the Works Progress Administration added the fireproof stair towers and present porches. When the yard
assigned alphabetical designations to quarters in the 1870s, the barracks itself became Quarters I while the two wings were designated as
Quarters H and Quarters K; these designations last appear on yard site plans in 1919. Thereafter, the two wings are shown as Quarters 1
(Commanding Officer) and 2 (Junior Officers), with each floor of the latter being assigned a lowercase letter suffix. Carlson, 12; G. Rodger
Evans, Historic Structure Report, Marine Barracks (Bldg. I), Charlestown Navy Yard: Architectural Data, Boston National Historical
Park, Charlestown, Massachusetts (draft; Denver: Denver Service Center, 1978), TIC 457/D36; Public Law 114, 50th Cong., 2nd sess., Mar.
2, 1889, Public Law 128, 54th Cong., 2nd sess., Mar. 3, 1897, in Woodbury Pulsifer, comp., Navy Yearbook: Compilation of Annual Naval
Appropriation Laws From 1883 to 1912, Senate Doc. No. 955, 62nd Cong., 3rd sess. (Washington: Govt. Printing Office, 1912), p. 102, 273. In
1837 and 1838 yard and Marine Corps officials considered relocating the barracks to a site on the opposite side of the Salem Turnpike
(Chelsea Street), but nothing came of this plan. See Bearss, Charlestown Navy Yard, 1800-1842, 1036-1037.
16
Bearss, 82-84, 89-91.
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