Local Industries

in East Boston

Small buildings housed the many businesses operating here, and stacks of lumber lined the wharves (Border Street between Central Square and Maverick Street).

O.H. Bailey & Co., 1879, map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library

Many businesses operated on this site, including a steam sawmill, a blacksmith and tin shop, several lumber yards and coal companies, and a carriage factory. They contributed to a thriving corridor of shipbuilding and related industries on this waterfront, which lasted into the 20th century.

These industrial uses date to the earliest days of East Boston development when the East Boston Timber Company was established in 1834 with an eye to encouraging shipbuilding. Timber was shipped from upstate New York, via the Erie Canal, and stored under water at a timber dock built here. The company went bankrupt six years later, but the large supply of inexpensive timber left behind did spur local shipbuilding. East Boston’s first shipbuilder, Samuel Hall, purchased a portion of the property.

In later years, other lumber companies were among the businesses that occupied this site, including George McQuesten & Company. McQuesten dealt primarily in southern hard pine–used extensively in local construction –and likely contributed to a cluster of home building businesses across the street.

Coal ship

West Virginia coal was unloaded at the Burton-Furber Coal Company, which operated here into the mid 20th century. The coal fueled sea-going vessels, East Boston’s North and South ferries, and institutions such as MIT.

Courtesy of Coal Age

William H. Sumner, writing of East Boston in 1858:

“[Before 1833], oyster-beds lined its shores; now, millions in value, comprising more than half the commerce of Boston, unload at its spacious wharves.”

Photo of George McQuesten on one of his ships used to transport lumber

George McQuesten (far right) transported lumber from Florida and Georgia to this site on his own schooners.

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.

Although none of the grand sailing ships built in East Boston survive today, the craftsmanship of the carpenters, woodcarvers, and other workers who built these ships can still be seen in many of East Boston’s 19th century houses. Most shipyard workers were independent contractors, frequently moving from shipyard to shipyard to find work. When shipbuilding work was scarce, they occasionally found jobs building houses in the neighborhood. And when advances in railroads and steamships led to the collapse of East Boston’s wooden shipbuilding industry after the Civil War, many former shipyard workers transitioned to full time jobs in housing construction.

Samuel Manson and Seth Peterson were ship joiners, craftsmen who made cabinetry and other interior finishes for ships. They moved to East Boston in 1841 and set up shop across the street from Samuel Hall’s shipyard. But by the 1870s, Manson and Peterson were exclusively making fireplace mantels, trim, and doors for East Boston houses. The influence of shipyard workers on East Boston’s architecture continued long after most of the neighborhood’s shipyards had closed. In 1976, East Boston resident Janet Graves recalled how her grandfather, a former shipyard worker, oversaw the construction of her family home at 388 Meridian Street in the 1890s: “My grandfather, having been a shipbuilder, knew how things should be built and he watched every nail.” Even today, East Boston’s shipbuilding legacy lives on in the handsome trim and finely carved details that adorn the facades of many of the neighborhood’s Victorian houses.

Dan Bailey
June, 2018

Resources

  • The Boston Directory. No. LXXVII. Boston: Sampson, Davenport, and Company, 1881.
  • Boston Redevelopment Authority. Amendment to the East Boston Waterfront District Municipal Harbor Plan – 6-26 New Street, Boston East, 125 Sumner Street. Boston: City of Boston, 2008.
  • City Record, Vol 10. Boston, MA: Superintendent of Printing, 1918.
  • Bunting, W.H. Portrait of a Port: Boston, 1852-1914. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 1971.
  • Fort Point Associates. Boston East Draft Environmental Impact Report, Draft Project Impact Report, Volume 1 of 2. Boston: Boston Redevelopment Authority, 2008.
  • Fort Point Associates. Boston East Project Notification Form, Environmental Notification Form. Boston: Boston Redevelopment Authority, 2007.
  • Massachusetts Historical Commission. Inventory Form East Boston Dry Dock Company / Atlantic Works, 2008.
  • Massachusetts Historical Commission. Inventory Form East Boston Inner Harbor Industrial Area, 1997.
  • The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. Technical Report, Intensive (Locational) Archaeological Survey, 122-148 Border Street Development. Rhode Island, 2015.
  • Seasholes, Nancy & The Cecil Group. Sites for Historical Interpretation on East Boston’s Waterfronts. Boston: Boston Redevelopment Authority, 2009.
  • Sumner, William H. History of East Boston: With Biographical Sketches of its Early Proprietors, and an Appendix. Boston: William H. Piper and Company, 1858.
  • War Department Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army and United States Shipping Board. Port Series No. 2: The Port of Boston. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1922.
  • Wolkins, G. G. “Trade Conditions in New England in 1918”, Coal Age Vol 15 No. 3, 1919.

Acknowledgments

  • Translation and recording thanks to the generosity of the Boston Marine Society
  • Our gratitude to the Perkins School for the Blind and David W. Cook for their partnership in creating the audio files