Outer Brewster Island, also known as Outward Island, is one of the outer

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s in the

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park is a combination national recreation area and state park situated among the islands of Boston Harbor. The park is made up of 34 islands and peninsulas and is managed by the Boston Harbor Islands Pa ...

and is situated some offshore of downtown

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The island has a permanent size of , and consists of exposed bedrock covered by fertile soil bounded by a rocky shore with steep cliffs. It provides a nesting habitat for coastal water birds, including

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s, common eider ducks,

glossy ibis The glossy ibis (''Plegadis falcinellus'') is a water bird in the order Pelecaniformes and the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The scientific name derives from Ancient Greek ''plegados'' and Latin, ''falcis'', both meaning "sickle" a ...

and American oystercatchers. The birds are aggressive during their

nesting season Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightwei ...

and access by humans, which is by private boat only, is discouraged during this period. Like the neighboring islands of Great Brewster, Little Brewster and Middle Brewster, Outer Brewster Island is named after William Brewster, the first preacher and teacher for the

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on t ...

. The relative barrenness and rocky shoreline of Outer Brewster has resulted in limited human usage. A

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

was operated on the island in the 19th century, and a coastal defense battery, known as Battery Jewell, was built on the island during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Both are now disused and abandoned. In 1798 Nathaniel Austin bought Outer Brewster Island from David Wood for $400. Austin built an artificial harbor on the island and hoped to establish a profitable quarry. He built the house at 27 Harvard Square and 92 Main Street in Charlestown from stone mined on Outer Brewster. The island was acquired by the US government from a private owner in 1913. Its primary use was in

as part of the Brewster Islands Military Reservation for a long-range 6-inch gun battery, named Battery Jewell and completed in 1943 along with a radar station. The island was abandoned by the Army in 1947 and subsequently sold to a private owner, becoming a state park in 1973. In 2005, Virginia energy company AES Energy proposed placing a liquified natural gas terminal on the island. Political opposition from environmental, recreational and boating interests succeeded in preventing the proposal from moving forward.

References

Boston Harbor islands Islands of Suffolk County, Massachusetts {{Boston-geo-stub

See also

References