i. introduction

I come across a horse-drawn carriage clacking along Seaport Boulevard. It's completely kitsch, but also a rather perfect symbol of how far my site has come. Transportation is a thread that's woven throughout Fort Point's history. Proximity to the sea brought ships, which brought industry, which brought railroads, which brought expansion. These changes to my site occurred gradually, the natural products of an altering industrial climate. However, in the late 19th and 20th centuries, Fort Point underwent two periods of sudden change. At these times, both sides of the channel experienced a reinvention. Growth, technological advances, and social circumstances influenced both sides of the channel to invoke development – development that was complementary, but not identical, from one side to another. The east took a financial hit with the arrival of new technologies after WWII and it never entirely crawled out from the wreckage of its industrial past. Today, we see evidence of steady reinvention – the old warehouses are becoming offices, apartments, and shops. We can glean from the history of Fort Point that prosperity comes in waves of convergence of groovy financial decisions and situational factors. From history, we know the east side has the support of the west to become settled into the modern economy.

ii. water & wharves

My site's story begins in the early 19th century, when the eastern side was still a tidal mudflat (but not for long). The 1835 map portrays the west separated from the eastern tidal lands by a voluminous Fort Point Channel. At the time, I imagine the east consisted of a few patches of filled land climbing north from Dorchester. Considering the proximity of Boston Harbor and the looming defense of Fort Hill, my site was a natural choice for maritime commerce. Indeed, the 1835 and 1867 maps show that the west side's southern waterfront was lined with wharves. Although I first assumed that the west had always been a built-up financial district, the maps show that the west was once a center of manufacture just like the east. Warner provides us with some insight on Boston's industrial landscape: “the coming of immigrants coincided with new industrial methods so that Boston soon grew to be a major manufacturing center” (Warner, 6). So boats would come into the harbor, depositing resources and workers to facilitate commerce.

In 1867, the wharves on my site were used for fishing, ship building, and coal. Though much of the site was still undeveloped and unused, the many wharves suggest a prosperous maritime trade. Of course, land transport is also a natural factor in industry. Ships bring materials into port that require on-land transportation after processing. There were many stables in the area in 1867. I believe the stables explain the presence of some of small services in the area such as a blacksmith to make horseshoes. But horses and carts were only so efficient. More importantly, the 1867 map displays the beginnings of an expansive railroad terminal that will later become South Station. The ships brought coal and lumber, which they deposited at the wharves. The coal went on to fuel and be transported by the developing freight rails and the lumber was made into more ships.

iii. filled land & rails

Looking back to the 1867 map, I see a small railroad passing between both sides of the channel. Of course, most of the east had yet to be filled in, but presumably the need for more wharves had already initiated the process of filling the land. Of course, trains were extremely powerful and useful for industrial transport. It only follows that an extension of the industrial center would also require the convenience of trains to thrive in manufacture. Jackson confirms my hypothesis in Crabgrass Frontier: “And only from the railroad-navigable waterway juncture could factories ship products to distant markets” (Jackson, 113). The union of trains and ships created a bustling manufacturing district, which extended its roots into the east side of the channel.

Probably, as the wharves grew more prosperous, the west needed room to expand. I assume that's why the 1884 map evidences that the Boston Wharf Company owned most of the east side. Most of the wharves on the west side were owned privately by English-sounding patrons like H. B. Inches and Chapin & Prescott. Since the Boston Wharf Company didn't own the west side, I wonder if perhaps the company was founded in order to handle the expansion of wharves around Fort Point. The Boston Wharf Company was likely developed earnest about capitalizing on the growth of wharves as a result of filling in the east. I notice that Fort Hill has become “Fort Hill Square” in the 1883 map. I conjecture that with the changing political scene and technology, Fort Point no longer required a its defensive fort from colonial times. Instead, the hill was razed and I imagine the stone was used to fill some of the east side.

In the 1880's, business continued to develop on both sides of the channel. The 1884 map of the east shows a barren layout with few streets and only a couple of industrial enterprises. At that time, the east had opened just a handful of new industries in steamships, lumber, and sugar refining. The 1883 Bromley map of the west shows that more of the western wharves were in use than in 1867, still mostly for processing of lumber and coal. The Congress St. Bridge has clearly been built, connecting the east to the west. I observe that the only wharf that was not being used was directly adjacent to the bridge on its west side. Perhaps it was difficult for ships to navigate under the bridge and into port immediately. I believe this marks an early example of how one form of transportation interacts with another. Here we see the waterways being impeded by land travel, which will end up shaping the commercial and social structure of Fort Point.

iv. new business

By the turn of the century, South Station grew from the west's railroad terminals. It consolidated the many freight lines with passenger lines in a grand new station. Now, workers could commute, bringing in people from all over Boston to work in industry. The growth of the railroad actually began to thwart the wharves. By around 1917, both sides of the channel underwent a rapid change. They became entirely settled, many new streets had been laid, and more buildings constructed. Bridges and railroad tracks now ran conveniently between the west and east sides.

Unexpectedly, all of the wharves on the west side had been filled in. I assume that the narrowed Fort Point Channel with many overhead bridges became difficult for commercial ships to navigate. If we look to the east of my boundaries, we see that many new wharves were built on the filled in land. The east was at first built to extend the wharves' prosperity, but the newly-filled east side eventually led to relocation of the wharves. With yet another example of the interaction between different modes of transportation, we're beginning to see a theme of the closely rooted connection between transportation and the redevelopment of industrial areas.

Back within the boundaries of my site, we see that both sides of the channel have become dense and industrial. The 1919 map shows that the east is home to many new warehouses and factories. The 1917 map of the west is far denser than previous maps and much new industry and commerce has settled in the area. Reflecting modern technology, both sides have opened electrical buildings owned by the Edison Company. Apart from this, industry on either side is mostly non-intersecting. The west still processed coal and opened many paper businesses. The east acquired glass, plow, and brewing warehouses. During this time, we see a trend of more land-oriented industry coming to Fort Point, which relies more than ever on trains for resources.

v. becomes old business

The arrival of the car brought a natural, gradual change to Fort Point. By 1950, there wasn't a stable in sight. Some buildings were even demolished to make room for parking lots. Jackson explains that the car, “even in its primitive form before World War I, could do four times the work of a horse-drawn wagon which took up the same street space” (Jackson, 183). I think it's clear that manufacturing work requires the use of modernity's most effective transportation measures. Hence the addition of the car was an absolute necessity, worth tearing a few warehouses to the ground.

In addition to the assimilation of cars, many new businesses swarmed to both sides. Of course, these maps reflect the time after WWII when America had come out of its depression. I imagine it was a time of new industrial pursuits and of great technological advances, which turned the tables for industry at that time. The east side opened a few stone, leather, and chemical industries – maintaining its industrial land use from 30 years before. The west, on the other hand, experienced a slight commercial shift from the manufacturing scene the addition of a department store and some demolition to make room for parking. The 1950 map of the east portrays a frontier of wool warehouses that had opened up. Seeing no sign of sheep in the immediate vicinity, I assume that the wool was imported via boat. The 1951 map shows that a couple of wool factories opened in the west. Wool never dominated the economy of the west as it did in the east. This marked a return to the original wharf-reliant commerce of 19th century Fort Point.

vi. innovation

In the late 20th century the commercial focus grew further and further from traditional maritime warehouses. The railroad, however, was still a prominent feature of the area for its commuter and freight purposes. Warner relates that, in the late 20th century, manufacture altered its focus to electronics and the city shifted to finance and services, which once again restored the wealth of the city (Warner, 6). We can see from the 1992 Sanborn maps of both sides of the channel that Warner's explanation seems spot-on, especially for the west side, where most of the factories had been demolished and replaced by the towering Federal Reserve Bank. Although the Edison plant remained, the rest of the west shifted from an industrial to a commercial economy after 1951. The east, however, appeared not to catch the same wave of prosperity.

Instead, little of the east's layout had changed. Most of the wool warehouses appear to have gone out of business and became apartments or offices. I presume the advent of synthetic fabrics after 1950 conveyed the doom of the wool industry on a mass-scale. Although I cannot be certain, the huge investment in wool may have bankrupted the Boston Wharf Company, as the company looks to have left the picture by 1992.

Looking over the Sanborn map from 1992, I notice one addition that I find particularly striking: the Children's Museum. The last time I visited my site, the museum, located on the waterfront between Congress and Seaport, flew a banner that pronounced “celebrating 100 years”. I was very confused, because I knew that Fort Point was recently a mecca of manufacture. Why would a Children's Museum be built amidst this industrial world? But then I read the small print, and discovered that the museum had moved from Jamaica Plain in about 1980. I extrapolated that the placement of the museum might have been part of a government project to convert the area. Perhaps public works took it upon themselves to rezone the east side in an effort to redefine Fort Point. This may explain the seemingly unfitting titles, “Waterfront” and “Innovation District,” that the east has adopted. In any case, this sudden redevelopment project appears to be gradually working as more families and small businesses arrive in the area.

In this final period of redevelopment, the west side once again shot up beyond the east in wealth. Today the west appears modern and prosperous. Its shining concrete towers cast shadows on the worn brick warehouses of the east. But not so long ago both sides were basically in the same financial state. I think the east side simply made a bad investment in wool, from which it only began to recover in the past 20 years. Now the east is making a comeback – many upmarket shops and restaurants opened, Zipcar moved in, the ICA brought culture to the area.

vii. conclusion

The east and west sides of my site are more interconnected than I imagined. I assumed that both sides had developed separately, as I found both areas so commercially different from one another. Historic maps revealed that the west and east were once contiguous centers of manufacture. The east burgeoned from the west, and gradually grew into an extension of western industry. Throughout time, changes in one side have spawned changes in the other. Indeed, Fort Point provides an oscillatory example of the refractions throughout Boston's industrial history. Fort Point's history delineates the impact of different modes of transportation on each other. We see ships promoting the railroad, and then the construction of railroads over the channel annihilating the wharves on the west within only a few decades. We see the role of technology, advances in electronics, cars, and synthetic fabrics shaped Fort Point. Only in the past 50 years have the two sides strayed in culture and wealth. However, I imagine that the integrated history of support between the east and west is enough for the east to develop into the area of innovation that it yearns to be.

References:

Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford UP, 1985. Print.

Warner, Sam B. Jr., Mapping Boston, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1962.