Naval Hospital Boston Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from ce ...

at the south end of Broadway in

Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 square miles, Chelsea is the s ...

. The district encompasses the area around the former Chelsea Naval Hospital. It consists of five buildings, historically the original 1836 Naval hospital, the 1857 Marine hospital, the Commanding Officer's quarters, and two ordnance buildings. The district was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1973.

1836 Naval hospital

The original hospital was built of granite and was used as personnel quarters after a new hospital was built in 1915; it has been converted into condominiums.

1857 Marine hospital

The Marine hospital was a three-storey building built of brick with an "I"-shaped footprint; a fourth storey was added in 1866. The building was returned to the Navy in 1940. It has been converted into condominiums.

Commanding Officer's quarters

Parts of the Commanding Officer's quarters date back to 1856.

Ordnance buildings

Two buildings on the site were built in the early 19th century to handle ordnance for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. The buildings were built by the

Bureau of Ordnance The Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) was a United States Navy organization, which was responsible for the procurement, storage, and deployment of all naval weapons, between the years 1862 and 1959. History Congress established the Bureau in the Depart ...

and the land was transferred back to the hospital in 1910. The larger building was designed to securely store explosives and ordnance and was not intended for human occupancy. It was a building within a building - an 1830s structure, without its original roof, encased within an 1860s structure which added the current exterior walls and a new roof. The architect and engineer Alexander Parris designed the inside structure. The floor is concrete and the interior is raw masonry, unpainted and unfinished. The ceilings are made of brick and include vaults which were designed to contain fire and force explosions upward rather than outward. The smaller building was used for quarters after being returned to the hospital, then as storage space.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Suffolk County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Chelsea, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

1836 Naval hospital

1857 Marine hospital

Commanding Officer's quarters

Ordnance buildings

See also

References