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Massport Marine Terminal, fancy way of saying "this is where we're putting the dirt from the Big Dig for a while" and no.
It apparently used to be a Navy Yard.
I don't, but I'll ask around. I love that building.
Photo of the Day, Boston Style - Part Deux
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It apparently used to be a Navy Yard.
Notice the brand name on that steel? Carnegie, baby. And now his mansion hosts the Smithsonian's design museum, Cooper-Hewitt, open to all of us for the traipsing and the wishing that Boston could get off its kiester and build a design museum.
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endus, last known occupant was Boston Sand and Gravel. The old man I talked to (my own) said he thinks it was originally build as a military related factory, which would make sense considering when it was built (WWII) and the fact that the Navy owned the land until the 1970s, but that's not confirmed.
And the lot across the street is going to become another cargo terminal. (damnit, there goes my dreams of an indoor water park)
And the lot across the street is going to become another cargo terminal. (damnit, there goes my dreams of an indoor water park)
Ron Newman
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Boston Marine Industrial Park was formerly an Army base, not Navy.
tobyjug
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Correct. However, as the size of capital ships outgrew the capacity in Charlestown, the Navy made extensive use of the facility. An anchor from a warship (U.S.S Kearsage?) used to sit by the guard post.
There have been a variety of efforts to maintain a nautical use for the property. About 16 years ago, I represented one of the principals in the National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the grounding of the Queen Elizabeth 2 off Cape Cod. She was heavily damaged (for comparison, many multiples of the damage that sank the RMS Titanic). The QE 2 was brought into the park drydock for repairs.
It was a bit of an embarassment. The granite dry dock is gigantic, a real work of art, perhaps 150 years old. But it was neglected. There were small trees growing out of the basin and stonework that had to be cleared. I vividly recall having to walk down 7 stories of wet, worn granite steps, reaching for an iron railing that had rusted away 40 years earlier.
As you would expect, there were safety precautions. All 70,000 tons and 963 feet of QE 2 were put up on old blocks, so as we headed down to the basin to inspect her bottom, we were given hard hats to protect us should the ship fall on us. It was amazing to stand under the bow, touch the keel 2 feet above your head, and look back toward the screws at the other end of this thousand foot long ceiling. The bottom of the dock was slightly awash, populated with dead fish wearing quizzical looks.
The guys at the yard really hustled, because they wanted to bid on the repairs. The work would have been the making of the yard. But the facilities let them down. I believe Bremerhaven got the work, $50 to $100 million in repairs. (Cunard has always been very coy about what was really done. Having seen the damage with my own eyes, and having done so in the company of a marine surveyor, it was clear the ship would have sunk if it were further from a port.) The Boston boys did a nice patch job, the QE 2 was withdrawn for service, and set sail for a lenthy layover in Germany.
Sorry to ramble on, but I guess my point was that this was the sort of use the city and state hoped to encourage. Perhaps that is why it has not yet been turned into a yacht basin.
Toby
There have been a variety of efforts to maintain a nautical use for the property. About 16 years ago, I represented one of the principals in the National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the grounding of the Queen Elizabeth 2 off Cape Cod. She was heavily damaged (for comparison, many multiples of the damage that sank the RMS Titanic). The QE 2 was brought into the park drydock for repairs.
It was a bit of an embarassment. The granite dry dock is gigantic, a real work of art, perhaps 150 years old. But it was neglected. There were small trees growing out of the basin and stonework that had to be cleared. I vividly recall having to walk down 7 stories of wet, worn granite steps, reaching for an iron railing that had rusted away 40 years earlier.
As you would expect, there were safety precautions. All 70,000 tons and 963 feet of QE 2 were put up on old blocks, so as we headed down to the basin to inspect her bottom, we were given hard hats to protect us should the ship fall on us. It was amazing to stand under the bow, touch the keel 2 feet above your head, and look back toward the screws at the other end of this thousand foot long ceiling. The bottom of the dock was slightly awash, populated with dead fish wearing quizzical looks.
The guys at the yard really hustled, because they wanted to bid on the repairs. The work would have been the making of the yard. But the facilities let them down. I believe Bremerhaven got the work, $50 to $100 million in repairs. (Cunard has always been very coy about what was really done. Having seen the damage with my own eyes, and having done so in the company of a marine surveyor, it was clear the ship would have sunk if it were further from a port.) The Boston boys did a nice patch job, the QE 2 was withdrawn for service, and set sail for a lenthy layover in Germany.
Sorry to ramble on, but I guess my point was that this was the sort of use the city and state hoped to encourage. Perhaps that is why it has not yet been turned into a yacht basin.
Toby
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i've always heard from people in the merchat marines that because the longshoremen in boston are so bad, a ship would have to be on the verge of sinking to come to boston. if they can get to another port they will
Beton Brut
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Toby -- Do you have any pix from your visit to ailing Queen, or did you have to sign some sort of lengthly non-disclosure agreement?
tobyjug
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B.B.,
That's a tricky one. I do.
Funny, at the time a reporter from one of the London tabloids ("The Sun", I think) outside the gate, seeing a dilapidated Leica III(f) swinging from my neck, shouts:
"Hay mate! I'll give ya a thousand quid for wot's in there!"
I was getting leaned on for some jewelry and a trip to the Bahamas at the time, and could have used a little graft.
Probably could have got double or triple from the "Mirror" or "Mail" too.
But no, still have'em, can't post'em. Power of a paper conscience!
Toby
That's a tricky one. I do.
Funny, at the time a reporter from one of the London tabloids ("The Sun", I think) outside the gate, seeing a dilapidated Leica III(f) swinging from my neck, shouts:
"Hay mate! I'll give ya a thousand quid for wot's in there!"
I was getting leaned on for some jewelry and a trip to the Bahamas at the time, and could have used a little graft.
Probably could have got double or triple from the "Mirror" or "Mail" too.
But no, still have'em, can't post'em. Power of a paper conscience!
Toby
Beton Brut
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Figured as much. The parenthetical sentence in your post above make me awful curious.
I was on the QE2 as a child, when it was docked here in the early 70's; my dad was a trooper and patrolled that pier and arranged a walk-through. I may never have the cash for a proper Atlantic crossing on her or her newer sisters. No Concorde rides for me either.
I was on the QE2 as a child, when it was docked here in the early 70's; my dad was a trooper and patrolled that pier and arranged a walk-through. I may never have the cash for a proper Atlantic crossing on her or her newer sisters. No Concorde rides for me either.
endus
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Absolutely fascinating story...I would have killed to photograph that...
TheBostonBoy
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^Man that is creepy, you are a very brave photographer endus! lol
great pictures though!
great pictures though!
Because We're in a little lull and it's baseball season again......
found this here: http://www.freakingnews.com/BOSTON-Pics-7823.asp
found this here: http://www.freakingnews.com/BOSTON-Pics-7823.asp
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That seems the appropriate thing to do with Everett and Revere.
pelhamhall
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I'm hoping for some more activity on this thread once the weather turns nicer. This is one of my favorite parts of this forum. I for one will be toting my digital camera around a lot this spring - but warning, I'm amateur at best.
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Dubai aint got nothin on Red Sox Nation.
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