Restoring the Rail Area at the Charlestown Navy Yard

Railroad tracks were part of how the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston built ships and ran its daily business. A few of those tracks survive near Dry Dock 1, and in April and May 2024 the Student Conservation Association's Massachusetts Historic Preservation Corps restored the ground around them so visitors could move through the area more easily.

The rails on August 25, 1936, in the area the Historic Preservation Corps restored. Boston National Historical Park, BOSTS-15683-640.

The yard's railroad

The rail system was first built around 1863. It worked well and was extended in the early 1900s. Yard workers used it for many jobs, from hauling coal and other materials to moving cranes around the dry docks. Only a few tracks remain today, and none of them are in use. The corps worked on the rails in front of the USS Constitution Museum and Dry Dock 1.

The problem with gravel

The ground in and around those tracks had been surfaced with loose gravel. Besides looking untidy, it made the area hard to cross for people using wheelchairs, walkers and other mobility aids.

The work

The crew's task was to improve the visitor experience and bring the rail area back into good shape. They started by digging out and hauling away the gravel. With the ground cleared, they measured and cut bricks to fit between and around the rails and laid them in place, to be mortared afterward.

The new brick surface looks better and is much smoother than the gravel it replaced, making the area more accessible to the public.

Sources

• National Park Service, Boston National Historical Park: "Charlestown Navy Yard Rail Area Restoration," contributed by a member of the Student Conservation Association's Historic Preservation Corps crew, citing Scott Jacobs and Alane Guitian, Historic Structure Report, Architectural Data Section: The Railroad Tracks, Charlestown Navy Yard (National Park Service, Denver Service Center).