Cultural Landscape Report for Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston

ROADS AND UTILITIES
SITE HISTORY 3. 1828-1869
In the 1828 master plan, Second Avenue, running along an earlier east-west main roadbed, served as the major axis
and the baseline for measurements in the yard. The plan called for an “avenue with paved road thirty-feet wide and
a foot walk fifteen-feet wide on each side.” The plan also included a network of canals, basins, and dry docks that
were never constructed. 4 In the 1840s and 1850s the Navy proposed the extension of railroad tracks into the yard
from the Fitchburg Railroad line’s current Charlestown Branch spur that terminated at the western edge of the yard
(Figure 3.3 -4). 5 Although the rail connection would facilitate movement of raw materials to manufacturing
facilities, the delivery of coal, and outfitting of ships, rails were not installed in the yard until the Civil War.
In the late 1840s, Main (Second) Avenue was graded, graveled, drained by gutters, and later paved along its entire
length. 6 Shortly thereafter, the road leading from the Main Gate, described as the frontage road, which later became
First Avenue was paved in 1851. “Paving bricks” were also set on the sidewalk along the outside of the boundary
wall, Water Street, the area adjacent to the Main Gate, and “220 feet of sidewalk between the Commandant’s
Quarters and the corner of the yard and Chelsea Street at the stables.” 7 Ten years later, the Navy contributed to the
cost of paving Wapping Street from the yard to Henley Street. 8
Coal was of increasing importance to the Navy in the early 1840s as a source of power for the yard’s physical plant as
well as auxiliary power for ships. The Navy erected several coal sheds in the winter of 1844 to 1845, including one
near the Dry Dock on the lot east of the Carpenter’s Shop (Building 24). Other improvements contributed to the
changing landscape. Natural gas, introduced into the yard in 1856, illuminated three converted oil lamps and three
new lights at the end of each shiphouse, extending working hours and the yard’s productive capacity. 9
4
1828 “Plan of the Navy Yard at Charlestown, Mass.”
5
“A representative of the Fitchburg Railroad estimated the cost of constructing 1,800 feet of track from the coal house to the end of the
Pier No. 65 at $3,840.” Black and Bearss, 28.
6
Bearss and Black, 67, 75, 80.
7
Bearss and Black, 57-58.
8
Bearss and Black, 128.
9
Bearss and Black, 118.
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