Boston Harbor Waterfront History

A trellis covered in wisteria stretches over the center of Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park. This iron arbor serves as the park’s main landmark, providing a shaded path along the harbor. Before the nineteen seventies, this land held…

Long Wharf extends a half mile into the harbor, recognizable by the brick facade of the Custom House Block sitting at its base. Built in seventeen ten, it served as the center of colonial trade, where ships unloaded tea, rum, and molasses…

A glass-walled building with a prominent concrete spiral ramp extending from its base sits on the edge of the harbor. This site sits directly over the remnants of Central Wharf, which served as a bustling hub for international trade in the…

The massive archway at Rowes Wharf frames a view of the harbor that changes with every shift in the tide. This granite and glass complex replaced a series of derelict piers in the mid-nineteen eighties. Architect Adrian Smith designed the…

The bronze tablet set into the brick wall on the corner of Congress and Purchase Streets marks the approximate site of Griffin’s Wharf. On the night of December sixteenth, seventeen seventy-three, three ships—the Dartmouth, the Eleanor,…

The Old Northern Avenue Bridge stands as a rusted, immobile iron truss structure stretching across the Fort Point Channel. Built in nineteen oh eight, it once functioned as a swing bridge, pivoting on a central pier to let heavy maritime…

The granite blocks lining the water’s edge at Fan Pier Park once served as the foundation for the massive piers that defined Boston’s shipping industry. During the nineteenth century, these wharves handled shipments of wool, sugar, and…