Charlestown Navy Yard at Boston National Historical Park

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See the Historic Sites web page for an interactive location map.

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While the Charlestown Navy Yard is part of Boston National Historical Park and a stop on the Freedom Trail®, it’s the attractions at the Navy Yard that draw visitors, not the property itself. Here you can board the USS Constitution, the oldest Navy ship still in operation, and the USS Cassin Young, a World War II-era destroyer. The Navy Yard is also home to the USS Constitution Museum and the Charlestown Navy Yard Visitor Center. Inside is a museum dedicated to the Navy Yard itself.

The National Park Service only owns 30 acres of the shipyard. The rest of the property and buildings are owned by the city of Boston. Many have been turned into offices and $500,000+ condominiums. Visitors are free to walk around and see the historical buildings, but none are open to the general public. Of particular interest is the Commandant’s elegant house. Completed in 1805, it is the oldest building in the shipyard. For a while it was used as a venue for weddings and other events, but a drunken guest broke his back after falling off the balcony and sued the National Park Service, and while he didn’t win, the government put an end to renting the place.

Commandant’s House at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston

Another historical building is the Marine Barracks, which was constructed in 1810. However, the four-story structure that stands today is a far cry from the original single-story building. Most of the additions were completed during World War II, a time when up to 600 men were stationed at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Today the building is used for National Park Service offices and apartments for park Rangers.

Marine Barracks at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston

The Charlestown Navy Yard opened in 1800 as one of the first six shipyards operated by the newly formed United States Navy. Initially, funding for ship building never materialized and the shipyard was nothing more than a supply depot. It wasn’t until war with England broke out in 1812 that ship building became a priority with the government. Six new navy ships were ordered, with the Charlestown Navy Yard in charge of producing the USS Independence (completed in 1814). However, while a few dozen new ships were built during the 1800s, the shipyard’s main purpose up through World War II was ship repair and maintenance.

The shipyard also cut out a niche for itself when it opened a ropewalk in 1837 (a rope manufacturing facility). Rope was vital for ship building, and the only way to control the quality was for the Navy to make its own. The ropewalk operated until 1971, producing nearly all the rope the Navy required.

During World War II, the Charlestown Navy Yard switched over from maintenance and repair to ship construction. At the height of war, 52,000 people were employed at the shipyard. Destroyers were the primary ships built at Charlestown, but it also produced tank landing ships and destroyer escorts. After World War II, only one other ship was built.

With the war over, the shipyard returned to its traditional role as a repair yard with an emphasis on modernizing destroyers by outfitting them with new weapons and radar and sonar equipment. The USS Gyatt was the first ship in the Navy to be converted into a guided missile destroyer, and the work was done in Charlestown. However, once the modernization programs had run their course, work at the shipyard waned, and it was eventually closed in 1974. It became part of Boston National Historical Park shortly thereafter.

While the National Park Service’s portion of the shipyard is mainly a setting for museums and historical ships, Dry Dock 1 still functions as a ship repair facility. This is where the USS Constitution has been coming for repairs since the dry dock opened in 1833. In fact, the Constitution was renovated just recently, with work taking place from 2015 to 2017. The ship reopened to the public in July 2017.

USS Constitution being repaired at Dry Dock 1 in the Charlestown Navy Yard

The following video shows how a dry dock works.

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