Boston Naval Shipyard

Boston Naval Shipyard
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
1912 Map of the Charlestown Navy Yard and Mystic Wharf
Location	Southeast of Chelsea Street, Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°22′34″N 71°3′9″W / 42.37611°N 71.05250°W / 42.37611; -71.05250Coordinates: 42°22′34″N 71°3′9″W / 42.37611°N 71.05250°W / 42.37611; -71.05250
Built	1800
Architect	Alexander Parris, et al.
NRHP Reference #	66000134
Added to NRHP	November 15, 1966

The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and laterBoston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. Established in 1801, it was officially closed as an active naval installation on July 1, 1974, and the 30-acre (120,000 m²) property was transferred to the National Park Service to be part of Boston National Historical Park. Enough of the yard remains in operation to support the USS Constitution. The USS Cassin Young, a World War II-era destroyer serving as a museum ship, is also berthed here, and there is also a dock which serves as a stop on the MBTA Boat. Among people in the area and the National Park Service, it is still known as the Charlestown Navy Yard.

The South Boston Naval Annex was located along the waterfront in South Boston.

The earliest naval shipbuilding activities in Charlestown, Massachusetts, began during the American Revolutionary War. The land for the Charlestown Navy Yard was purchased in 1800 and the yard itself established shortly thereafter. The yard built the first U.S. ship of the line, USS Independence, but was primarily a repair and storage facility until the 1890s, when it started to build steel ships for the "New Navy". By then, it was called the Boston Navy Yard.

On June 24, 1833, the staff and dignitaries including Vice President Martin Van Buren, Secretary of War Lewis Cass, Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury, and many Massachusetts officials, witnessed "one of the great events of American naval history": the United States frigate Constitution was inaugurating the first naval drydock in New England designed by prominent civil engineer Loammi Baldwin, Jr.