A World Class Pier

in South Boston

(awaiting installation)

This postcard highlights Commonwealth Pier’s innovative features early in its operation. Freighters docked alongside a two-level shed, which trains entered via the headhouse on either side. Passenger cars approached via the viaduct above.

Courtesy of WardMaps LLC

Commonwealth Pier was the largest and best equipped passenger and cargo shipping complex on the East Coast when completed in 1914. It was part of a harbor improvement project that spanned decades and created 650 acres of piers and industrial land in South Boston.

Designed by Henry F. Keyes, the structure boasted a neoclassical headhouse with three two-story sheds stretching behind it. The pier provided deep-water berths for five vessels and facilities to handle marine, rail, and vehicular transport. The imposing arcade and triumphal arch exemplified the City Beautiful movement, which was thought to foster civic virtues.

A dedicated power station supplied heat to offices and passenger accommodations. Electricity— transformed at a pier substation— powered equipment and lit the large interior. Roofline lighting enabled ships to dock at night. Sprinklers and pumps that drew salt water from the harbor provided fire protection. 

Commonwealth Pier served as an active passenger and freight terminal into the 1960s, when the pier’s use declined as its facilities became obsolete.

This 1903 map depicts the large expanse of recently made land in South Boston, including the 1200-foot x 400-foot Commonwealth Pier.

Courtesy of State Library of Massachusetts

The freight shed on the pier’s east side took shape in March 1913. By May 31 the two-story shed was ready to welcome passengers to temporary facilities, while construction on the pier continued.

Courtesy of Revolutionary Spaces

Despite Hamburg-American’s critical importance to Commonwealth Pier’s opening, its service was suspended during World War I. Cincinnati and her sister ship Amerika spent the war docked at Hamburg-American’s berths here, while the company paid dockage fees.

Engineering News, April 2, 1914

In the 1950s Commonwealth Pier still handled cargo ships and passenger liners but had to be modernized when trucking replaced railroads as the principal means of transporting cargo.

Boston Traveler, July 23, 1956, courtesy of Jan Engelman

Sign Location

More ...

Community activists. Colonial law. Political will. New state regulations. The combination created the 43-mile Boston Harborwalk–a public path, stretching from Logan Airport through seven neighborhoods to the Neponset River. In 1978, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) sought to improve public access to the waterfront. They succeeded by integrating early Colonial laws into new state regulations.

In the decades that followed, community activists, city and state government, and developers of shoreline projects have worked together to ensure the Harborwalk is always constructed along the waterfront. Some sites also provide public amenities–bathrooms, meeting places, kayak launches,
etc. The result is a fabulous path welcoming residents and visitors to our vibrant clean harbor.

Early Colonial laws established public right of access along tidelands to protect citizens' rights to fish, hunt, and navigate at sea and along the shorefront. These laws go back even further: They stem from Roman law, which was incorporated into English law and brought over to Massachusetts by English
settlers. Then, in the 1640s, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws permitting private docks in the intertidal area (between low and high tide) as long as public access was retained. Almost all of Boston's waterfront is filled land that was once the intertidal area. This, together with the centuries-old legal right of access, served as the underpinnings for the 1978 CZM regulations.

Resources

  • Barrett, Robert E. “The Development of the Port of Boston.” Engineering News, 2 April 1914, pp. 709-717.
  • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. First Annual Report of the Port of Boston Commission. January 1955.
  • Commonwealth Pier Five, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System Inventory Form. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 2014
  • Commonwealth Pier Five, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. U.S. Department of Interior, 1979
  • Hines, Gerald F. “Boston in War Paint.”  The American Review of Reviews: An International Magazine, edited by Albert Shaw, January-June 1918.
  • Seasholes, Nancy S. Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. The MIT Press, 2003.
  • Stott, Peter. South Boston. Draft industrial archeology report on firms in South Boston. On file at Massachusetts Historical Commission.
  • “What is the City Beautiful Movement?” Planetizen. https://www.planetizen.com/definition/city-beautiful last accessed 23 Apr 2023.
  • Our gratitude to the Perkins School for the Blind and David W. Cook for their partnership in creating the audio files.