• Charlestown Navy Yard
• Marine Barracks Boston
• USS Constitution

Charlestown Navy Yard

The first Marines in the Boston area were quartered on Castle Island in 1799. The following year, the U.S. Government bought the 35 acres in Charlestown, Massachusetts, known as Moulton’s Point, to create the Charlestown Navy Yard. Twenty-five years earlier, Moulton’s Point had been the landing site for British forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Navy Yard is one of the original six federal shipyards established to build warships. From 1800 until it closed in 1974, the “Yard” built, repaired and supplied ships for the U.S. Navy. For much of its history, the Charlestown Navy Yard’s ropewalk (built in 1837) produced all of the U.S. Navy’s rope. In 1926, die-lock chain was invented here. Die-lock chain is still used by the United States and many foreign navies!
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The Marine Barracks in Boston

On June 5, 1805, the Secretary of the Navy established the first permanent Marine detachment to work and live at the Yard. The detachment consisted of one lieutenant, one sergeant, three corporals and fifteen privates. The Secretary also directed “a small house built” to serve as a barracks for the enlisted men.

Built between 1810 and 1811, the Marine Barracks in Charlestown, also known as “Quarters I”, is one of the nation’s oldest surviving U.S. Marine barracks buildings.
The Marine Barracks was a one-stop shop for the Marines living at the Navy Yard. The Marine Corps personnel slept, ate and socialized inside the building. The barracks building also housed an exchange and barber shop.

Over the years, the Charlestown Navy Yard was home to 146 Marine commanders, beginning with Captain Henry Caldwell, and ending in 1974, with Lieutenant Colonel John R. Yates, Jr. Briefly in 1836, the Charlestown Navy Yard Marines were commanded by a non-commissioned officer, Sergeant E.C. Young.

In 1974 the U.S. Government officially closed the Charlestown Navy Yard and the original 30 acres were transferred to the National Park Service (NPS). Since then, the Marine Barracks has become an integral part of Boston National Historical Park. During Marine Week Boston, the Corps and the NPS will rededicate the Marine Barracks building.

Did you know: The Washington D.C. Marine Barracks is considered the oldest U.S. Marine barracks site while the Charlestown Navy Yard has the oldest Marine barracks building. The Washington, D.C. barracks was actually built first, in 1801, but the original building was torn down and rebuilt.
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USS Constitution

Built in Boston to defend the young American nation, USS Constitution is nearly as old as the document for which George Washington and Congress named her. Both the document and the ship have proven to be resilient symbols of America’s strength, courage, and liberty.

Made of timbers felled from Maine to Georgia and armed with cannon cast in Rhode Island and copper fastenings provided by Paul Revere, the vessel is truly a national ship. Launched in Boston on October 21, 1797, she first put to sea in 1798. Having remained a part of the U.S. Navy since that day, Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent her to the Mediterranean to protect American ships and sailors from attack by the Barbary pirates. With Captain Edward Preble in command, Constitution and other ships of the squadron bombarded Tripoli. Thanks to such determination, a treaty of peace was signed in June 1805 between the United States and Tripoli onboard Constitution.

It was during a ferocious battle with HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812 that the sailors were astonished at the British cannonballs bouncing off Constitution’s hull, so they cried out – “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!” Hence her nickname “Old Ironsides.”

In 1830, she was reported unseaworthy and condemned to be broken up. A poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., entitled “Old Ironsides,” aroused such popular feeling that money was appropriated for rebuilding her in 1833.

In 1882, she was removed from active service and shortly thereafter retired to Portsmouth, New Hampshire Naval Shipyard. Refitted for display and opened to the public in 1905, she became a national monument. Today, Constitution rests in the Boston harbor at Charlestown Navy Yard as an enduring symbol of the document for which she is named and of America’s determination to defend the republic she so long protected.
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-This information is courtesy of the National Park Service, Boston National Historical Park and the Marine Corps History Division, Marine Base Quantico.