A Storied Past

Boston’s Battery Wharf has a rich history that spans more than 300 years! From it's time as an early defense location for the new colony, to it's parlay into a ship building hub, to present day use as a waterfront hotel, Battery Wharf has always been a vibrant part of the city.

Hailed as Boston's first neighborhood, the North End shaped the early fortunes of the historic city.  The area prospered with shipping and shipbuilding, with much of America’s early trade being routed through its warehouses.

In 1646 a shoreline battery was built by General John Leverett on "Merry’s Point, which is  now the site of Battery Wharf.  The battery, which became known as North Battery, provided protection for the mouth of the Charles River, and remained fortified through the American Revolution.  It was rebuilt in 1706.  A wharf connected it to the shore, and a shipyard was developed behind the wharf.  In 1744 North Battery was rebuilt again out of stone.

In 1788, the town of Boston sold the North Battery to Joseph Russell, believed to be a near relative of Benjamin Russell, the publisher of the Columbian Centennial, an early Boston newspaper. The battery then became known as Jeffery and Russell’s Wharf, one of the many warehousing wharves along the harbor.

In 1831 Joseph Warren Revere, a son of Paul Revere, acquired all rights to Battery Wharf. By 1852, Revere had expanded Battery Wharf and the wharf north of it, creating the North Battery and Battery Wharf.  By 1885, a “lobster boiling” structure had been added on Battery Wharf.

By 1895 Battery Wharf had been acquired by the Merchants & Miners Transportation Company, which operated steamships between Boston and Baltimore. North Battery Wharf was removed and Battery Wharf  was rebuilt with a seawall under part of the wharf. The seawall still remains under the present Battery Wharf.

When Battery Wharf was rebuilt in the 1890s, storage sheds were built around its perimeter and remained until the wharf was demolished in 2001 for the construction site of Battery Wharf Hotel & Residences.