Roxbury Canal & South Bay (Boston, MA)

South Bay & The Roxbury Canal
Boston, MA

The history and contamination of this area, and its continued existence, is all a recent revelation to me as I live <2,000 ft away from it all. I'm updating these pages with my research findings as I work through the records. This is an unfolding project and these pages include research notes and excerpts along with original documents, but my findings are pending.

SOUTH BAY RESEARCH NOTES & RESOURCES:

TECHNICAL:

SAFETY & REGULATORY:

Conditions at the current Mouth of the Roxbury Canal (Dec. 2025)

On Dec. 30 2025, I visited the mouth of the Roxbury Canal where it flows out to Fort Point Channel. I was there and took photographs from 11:54 AM - 12:13 PM EST. Per NOAA Id. 8443970, on Dec. 30 2025, Low Tide was -0.02 around 1:06 PM and the High Tide was around 6:42 AM around 10.4 ft. The temp was 27.7 °F, wind blowing from the W/SW at 25 mph, 41% humidity, 29.46 "Hg, and 10 mi visibility. Per NWS, Boston received 0.39" of precipitation in the 24hrs prior to the site visit.

I found the water to be covered in sheen, froth, filth, debris, and sludge. I found multiple examples of the canal being used as a landfill (shopping carts, wheelchairs, office chairs, etc.). The colors on the brick/stone banks reflect sludge at the lower tide level, green moss/algae at the higher tide level, and iron oxidation processes occurring at or above the high tide level. I noticed the water was moving from the canal mouth into the channel, indicating ongoing flow despite dry conditions. I also noticed at least one apparent storm water outlet near a sludge bank on the other side of the channel with a significant speed and volume of moving water, again despite dry conditions.

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | Traveler St Bridge, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343615, -71.060516)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | S Bay Harbor Trail, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343444, -71.060892)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | S Bay Harbor Trail, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343059, -71.061035)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | Traveler St Bridge, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343615, -71.060516)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | S Bay Harbor Trail, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343444, -71.060892)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | Traveler St Bridge, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343615, -71.060516)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | S Bay Harbor Trail, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343444, -71.060892)

Dec. 30 2025 | Photo by Ashley Gjovik | Roxbury Canal / Fort Point Channel | S Bay Harbor Trail, Boston, MA 02127 (42.343059, -71.061035)

Site History (19th Century-Current)

You can review the earlier site history, including related to the American Revolution, here: Site History (Pre-19th Century)

"Fort Point Channel is a channelized waterway separating downtown Boston from South Boston. Today, the water passage terminates in a culvert emerging from beneath the West Fourth Street Bridge. In the eighteenth century, this was a wide inlet leading to Roxbury Harbor, a large shallow body of water and mud flats fed by tides and creeks. On the west was the neck of the Shawmut Peninsula, and on the east were the farms of Dorchester Neck (now South Boston). In the nineteenth century, as South Boston and Roxbury developed, the Harbor underwent a series of use and name changes in response to a growing city. As South Cove, it became an urban fringe area, not only for Boston, but for the city of Roxbury and town of Dorchester (both of which were annexed to Boston after the Civil War). In the years immediately preceding and following the Civil War, coal yards and heavy industry took advantage of both rail and water connections to make the district a major industrial area. As commercial development spread along the Boston and South Boston shores, the channel
leading to South Bay was narrowed. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the name "Fort Point Channel" was given to the water passage, after the promontory near Rowe's Wharf, east of Fort Hill."

BOS.9241, Fort Point Channel Bridge, ADDENDUM TO NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD FORT POINT CHANNEL ROLLING LIFT BRIDGE, HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, HAER MA-35 .

1800's-1820's

TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

Maine separated from Massachusetts and entered the Union as the 23rd state in 1820.
Boston incorporated as a city in 1822.

"Prior to the Civil War, there were frequent demands to fill in both South Cove and Fort Point Channel to gain more buildable land. But but little activity occurred until 1828 when the Free Bridge was opened connecting South Boston to Boston."

BROADWAY BRIDGE, NPS, HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA, HAER No. MA-129, MA-135.

1806

1814, Dearborn

1814

1820

1830-1850's

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Boston University created by ministers at the Old Bromfield Street Church (1839)
Briggs / Bird Report (1849)

"Fort Point Channel is a channelized waterway separating downtown Boston from South Boston. In the eighteenth century, this waterway was a wide inlet leading to Roxbury Harbor, a large shallow body of water and mudflats fed by tides and, at its southern end, by Dorchester Brook. On the west was the neck of the Shawmut Peninsula, and on the east were the farms of Dorchester Neck (now South Boston). In the nineteenth century, as South Boston and Roxbury developed, this harbor experienced a series of names reflecting its changing use and public perception: Gallows Bay, South Bay, and South Cove."

BROADWAY BRIDGE, NPS, HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA, HAER No. MA-129, MA-135.

"American independence caused a break in old trading relations and stimulated the forging of new ones. Soon Boston became the leading American port, but New York began to surpass it in the 1820's with its better rail communications connecting it to the rapidly developing western frontiers. However, Boston's international trade continued to prosper until the 1850's when Boston's status started to decline to that of a regional port and the bulk of its trade became coastwise."

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATMENT ON DEBRIS REMOVAL FROM BOSTON HARBOR, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1980).

"By 1929 Boston ranked eighteenth nationally in deepwater tonnage while first in coastwise tonnage. During this period Boston served the rapidly expanding New England industries which brought their raw materials in by sea, but sold their products on the inland market with the result that imports greatly exceeded exports. Boston was a leading center of shipbuilding and, between 1845 and 1857, it was a worldwide center for the construction of clipper ships. But the shipbuilding industry never recovered from the depression of 1857."

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATMENT ON DEBRIS REMOVAL FROM BOSTON HARBOR, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1980).

"Between the seventeenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries, a variety of individuals and private companies began to fill parts of the watery expanses around what would become the channel and built wharves and dockage space. Development was completed in a piecemeal fashion. There were, however, distinctive and large scale fill operations which had dramatic effects on the growth of the channel.

Much of this was in the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first of these was the South Cove Associates project. The Associates, allied with Boston & Worcester Railroad interests, had purchased 75 acres of undeveloped tidal zone and filled in mudflats on the west side of the channel.

Between 1833 and 1839, fifty-six acres of land were filled in mostly with gravel from Roxbury and Dorchester. The land comprises much of what is today Chinatown and the South Station area, including the mid-section of the western edge of Fort Point Channel, between what is now the West Fourth Street Bridge and the Dorchester Avenue Bridge."

Fort Point Channel, Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. MA-130 (June 1996).

1832

1835

1836, Creek Dividing Boston from Roxbury

1838

1839

"South Bay, the channel's southern most terminus, began to be filled in the 1830s and gradually developed into an area of wharves and heavy industry such as foundries, coal pockets and lumber companies. South Bay became an increasingly active industrial area, accessed by Fort Point Channel. In the 1850s more marsh lands were filled and the water at the southern end of South Bay channeled into the Roxbury Canal. In 1795 the Roxbury Canal, (built by local businessmen as a transportation canal from Roxbury to South Bay) had been constructed from near present day Dudley Station (Orange Line) to South Bay, paralleling, and south of, Albany Street. Much of the canal was filled in by the 1820s, but it was still used for drainage. It was completely filled by the mid-1960s."

Fort Point Channel, Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. MA-130 (June 1996).

1841

1844

"During the present century the average depths in the Fore Point Channel, below Summer Street wharf, have diminished one half. On the spot the most favorably situated for the accumulation of silt, the loss between the years 1836 and 1847 was more than two feet... From the foregoing recital of the proofs of deterioration of the main ship-channel of the harbor, a deterioration slow and gradual, certainly, but which, if suffered to continue, must in course of time impair the commercial advantages of the city."

Charles H. Davis, A Scientific Account of the Inner Harbor of Boston, with a Synopsis of the General Principles to be observed in the Improvement of Tidal Harbors, April I, 1851, Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, New Series, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1853), pp. 93-110

1843, Roxbury Survey

1846

SENATE No. 87. (April 2, 1847).

The Joint Committee on Mercantile Affairs and Insurance, to whom was referred the report of the commissioners appointed under the Resolve of the Legislature, approved April 16th, 1846, in relation to the restrictions recommended to be established in South Bay and Charles River, as follows The matter referred to the Committee involves the question, whether certain lines, recommended by commissioners as the limits beyond which no wharves or other structures shall be extended towards the channels, ought to be adopted... Considerations of this nature are of minor importance in comparison with the preservation of a proper depth of water in the channel below Charles River Bridge and the Navy Yard. If an unfavorable change should take place there, the land above might not prove to be worth the cost of enclosure, and the prosperity of the city of Cambridge, like that of Boston and other parts of the State, would decline in consequence. The depth of that channel can only be preserved by the passage through it, at every tide, of a volume of water sufficient to wash it free from any matter that might gather on the bottom if the current were feeble. That volume will, of course, be diminished as the basin, into which it is to be poured, is contracted... It seems unwise to hazard the depth of channel below the bridges by any greater reduction of the basin than this, at least until it shall be ascertained, by actual trial, that it is safe to venture so far as the commissioners have recommended. Years must pass away before such an extent of flats, in a position so remote from present business, can be reclaimed from the sea. When that is done, if it shall be found that no evil consequences ensue, it would seem early enough then to grant permission to advance farther. If there be inconvenience in establishing a barrier on one line and afterwards extending it outward, instead of occupying the outer line at once, this inconvenience is small in relation to the magnitude of the interest at stake.... the claimants urge further, that if this portion of the flats is kept open for the public on the ground of necessity, that necessity has been occasioned by an act of the Commonwealth in granting leave to the Boston and Roxbury mill-dam to exclude the water from flowing into the Back Bay. The Committee have great doubts whether it will be a serious detriment to the claimants to restrict them to the commissioners’ line. Within this line, they will have an immense area of flats to fill up, the value of which would not probably be much increased by extending the front farther into the bay, at the cost of filling up more land. But, however this may be, the Committee cannot doubt that the Commonwealth shouldadhere to the limits which the safety of the harbor seems to require, and meet all just or equitable demands that may arise in consequence, rather than to put in jeopardy the advantages which she derives from her greatest seaport. Wherefore, in conformity with the report of the commissioners, the Committee report the accompanying Bill.

BOSTON HARBOR. "Be it enacted by the. Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Sect. 1. The lines hereinafter described, are hereby established as lines of the channel of the harbor of Boston, beyond which no wharf or pier shall ever hereafter be extended into and over the tide-water of the Commonwealth.
Sect. 2. The first line is drawn from the southerly end of the island built by the Boston and Maine Rail-road Company, between the channels of Charles River and Miller’s River to the southerly corner of the northwesterly abutment of Canal (or Craigie’s) Bridge. The second line is drawn straight from the face of the said abutment of Canal Bridge, through a point on the northerly side of West Boston Bridge, two thousand feet from the easterly side of the draw in said bridge, to a point two thousand feet northerly from the harbor line heretofore established on the northerly side of the Boston and Roxbury Mill Dam. The next line is drawn from this last point westerly, parallel to said Mill Dam, and two thousand feet from said harbor line to the northern shore of Charles River, near its mouth.
Sect. 3. The fourth line is in Miller’s River, and is drawn from the south corner of the aforesaid Boston and Maine Rail-road Company’s island northerly, along the westerly side of the same, and thence in the same straight line to the northerly side of the old channel. The fifth line is drawn from the point where the fourth line meets the northerly side of the said channel, northwesterly, northerly and northeasterly, along the sea-wall recently built by the Charlestown Branch Rail-road Company to the westerly projection of the State’s Prison Yard. The sixth line is parallel to the fourth line, and two hundred feet westerly. It extends from the channel of Charles River to the south side of the channel of Miller’s River. The seventh line is drawn from the north end of the sixth, as just described, to a point on the north side of Prison Point Bridge, five hundred feet westerly of the centre line of the Boston and Maine Rail-road. The eighth line is drawn from the northern extremity of the seventh to a point opposite the west end of Fitchburg Rail-road Liidge, and distant from the same three hundred feet, the ninth line is drawn from the last-mentioned point to the northerly corner of the southeasterly abutment of the Boston and Lowell Rail-road Bridge over Miller’s River.
Sect. 4. The tenth line is in South Bay, and is drawn from a point on the south side of the South Free Bridge (one hundred and fifty feet southeasterly of the southeasterly side of the draw) in a southerly direction, parallel to the Dorchester turnpike, three thousand feet. The eleventh line is on the westerly side of the channel, and is drawn from the southerly corner of Miller and Nason’s wharf, southerly in a direction at right angles with the South Bridge, across the same, to a point twelve hundred and fifty feet distant therefrom. The twelfth line is drawn from the last-mentioned point to the westerly side of the artificial channel of Roxbury Creek, one thousand feet southeasterly from Harrison Avenue, opposite the South Burying-ground. The said lines, thus described, are the lines reported by commissioners under the Resolve passed the twenty-second day of March, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-five,“ authorizing the survey of South Bay, Charles and Mystic Rivers,” and by said commissioners drawn and defined on plans by them taken and deposited in the library of the Commonwealth.
Sect. 5. No wharf, pier, building or incumbrance of any kind shall hereafter be extended beyond the said lines, or either of them, into or over the tide-water in said harbor ; nor shall any wharf or pier, which is now erected on the inner side of either of said lines, be extended farther towards the said line than such wharf or pier now stands, or than the same might have been lawfully enlarged or extended before the passing of this act, without leave being first obtained from the Legislature.
Sect. 6. Every person offending against the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to be prosecuted there-for, by indictment or information, in any court of competent jurisdiction ; and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not less than one thousand dollars, nor more than five thousand dollars, for every offence ; and any erection or obstruction, which shall be made contrary to the provisions and intent of this act, shall be liable to be removed and abated as a public nuisance, in the manner heretofore provided for the removal and abatement of nuisances on the public highway.
(April 2, 1847).

1848

SENATE No. 110. "The Committee on Towns, to which was committed the Petition of the mayor of the city of Boston, praying for an alteration of the boundary line between that city: and the city of Roxbury, report the accompanying Bill. By order of the Committee, CHESTER ADAMS, Chairman.

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Nine. AN ACT: To alter the Boundary Line between Boston and Roxbury. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: "The present boundary line between the city of Boston and the city of Roxbury, southeasterly of Harrison Avenue, is hereby altered, and established as follows, to wit: beginning at a point in the present boundary line, at the centre of the Roxbury Canal, (so called,) thence, running in the centre of said canal, to a point in the same, situate one thousand and seven feet from the southeasterly side of Harrison Avenue, measuring southeasterly, and in the range of the westerly side of Worcester Street, in said Boston, thence, running in a straight line northeasterly, about twenty-six hundred and twenty-two feet, to a pile monument in the Roxbury channel in the present line, and all that portion of land, or flats, northwesterly of the line hereby established, is hereby annexed to the said city of Boston." (April 3, 1849.)

Sen. No. 110 (1849)

1832; 1849

1850

July 1850

1850

Ch 281. An Act to annex a part of the City of Roxbury to the City of Boston. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Boundary. The boundary line between the city of Boston and the city of Roxbury, southeasterly of Harrison Avenue, is hereby altered and established as follows, to wit: beginning at a point in the present boundary line, at the centre of the Roxbury canal, (so called,) thence running in the centre of said canal, to a point in the same, situate one thousand and seven feet from the southeasterly side of Harrison Avenue, measuring southeasterly, and in the range of the westerly side of Worcester street, in said Boston ; thence running in a straight line, northeasterly, about twenty-six hundred and twenty-two feet, to a pile monument in the Roxbury channel, in the present line ; and all that portion of land, or flats, northwest of the line hereby established, is hereby annexed to, and made a part of, the said city of Boston, in the county of Suffolk : provided, however in however, that the territory so transferred, shall, for the purpose of electing senators, continue to be, and remain a part of, the city of Roxbury ; and that all the inhabitants residing upon it shall, until otherwise constitutionally provided, always enjoy, in relation to the election of senators, all the rights and privileges of, and in relation to, voting in the said city of Roxbury, which they would have possessed if this act had not been passed ; such voting to be in the ward whereof the place of voting shall be, for the time being, =nearest the westerly corner of the said territory.

1850

1852

Roxbury, 1852

The City of Boston and Immediate Neighbors, Survey by H. McIntyre C.E., 1852

1854

Boston Evening Transcript, 1855

"Authorizing the laying out and extension of Albany street on South Bay lands to Roxbury creek;
also to erect a bridge over the creek;
also to request city of Roxbury to lay out Davis street to meet said Albany street, at Roxbury creek."

"Prior to the 1850s, the Site was undeveloped land on the north bank of Roxbury Creek.
During the 1850s, the Albany Street area was filled behind a granite block seawall."

RESPONSE ACTION OUTCOME STATEMENT MEDICAL EXAMINER'S BUILDING, 720 ALBANY STREET, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, Prepared for Commonwealth of Massachusetts, RTN 3-4530 (June 22, 2010)

1855

Washington Street "was in 1834 extended over Orange, Newbury, Marlborough, and Cornhill, the streets north of it, and over Roxbury Street to the Worcester turnpike on the south. Washington Street, which now includes Shawmut Avenue, formerly the Dedham turnpike, is perhaps the longest in the world, as it bears that name over a continuous line of road as far as the city of Providence, a distance of forty-four miles. In 1855 it was widened from the burying-ground to Warren Street."

Francis S. Drake, The Town of Roxbury, Boston, 1878.

1855

Jan. 1856

Nov. 1856

Commonwealth vs. City of Roxbury, 9 Gray 451, 75 Mass. 451 (October, 1857)

May 20 1859, Boston Evening Transcript

July 26 1859, Boston Evening Transcript

July 27 1859, Boston Evening Transcript

1860's-1870's

TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

Boston University ("Boston Theological Institute") buys 30 Acres at 23 Pinkney Street in Boston (1867)
Massachusetts Enfranchisement Act of 1869
Boston University chartered in 1869 (Newbury Biblical Institute)

1860

Jan. 2 1860, Boston Evening Transcript

1861 Plans for Back Bay

June 1862, Boston Evening Transcript

1863

SENATE—No. 288. BOSTON HARBOR. AN ACT: To change certain Harbor Lines in the South Bay and Fort Point Channel. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Sect. 1. The second section of the thirty-fifth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and forty, is hereby amended, by striking out all after the words, “to the east end of the same,” near the end of said section, and substituting the following, viz.: The said line then extends two hundred fifty-six feet straight, so as to form an angle with said bridge of seventy-five degrees; thence on an arc of a circle of six hundred feet radius, a distance of five hundred feet, to a point three hundred and eighteen feet from and perpendicular to the west side of Mount Washington avenue; thence in a straight line and tangent to said arc, in a northerly direction, in such position, that if continued straight, it shall not approach within six hundred feet of Arch wharf.

Sect. 2. The fourth section of the two hundred seventy-eighth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred forty-seven, is hereby amended, by striking out so much of said section as relates to the “eleventh line,” and substituting the following, viz.; The eleventh line is on the westerly side of the channel, and is drawn from the southerly corner of Miller and Nason’s wharf, southerly in a direction at right angles with the south bridge across the same, to a point eighteen hundred and twenty feet distant therefrom; thence on an arc of a circle of seventeen hundred feet radius, a distance of eight hundred feet, to a point in the twelfth line, and tangent thereto.

Sect. 3. The second section of the two hundred ninety-third chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred fifty-six, is hereby repealed, and the following is substituted therefor, viz.; The lines in South Bay commence at the mouth of the Roxbury canal, in the town of Roxbury, at the north-westerly corner of the stone Avail; thence, running easterly on an arc of a circle of seventeen hundred feet radius, a distance of one hundred and sixty feet to a point, one hundred and thirty-one feet distant from the terminus of the “twelfth line,” as described in the fourth section of the two hundred seventy-eighth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred forty-seven, and perpendicular thereto; thence easterly, on an arc of a circle of seventeen hundred feet radius, a distance of sixteen hundred and fifty-two feet, to the most north-easterly corner of Heath and Company’s wharf; thence along the present line of said wharf to the most south-easterly corner of the same; thence seven hundred and seven feet in the direction of a line drawn from the last-mentioned corner to a point on the south-easterly rail of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad bridge, which point is distant forty-nine hundred and eighty-seven feet south-westerly from the south-westerly rail of the Old Colony Railroad bridge, measuring on the said south-easterly rail; thence on an arc of a circle of six hundred feet radius, a distance of eighteen hundred and eighty-four feet, to a point eleven hundred and thirty-two feet distant from the westerly side of Dorchester turnpike, and perpendicular thereto, and at a point five hundred and twenty feet southerly from the intersection of the westerly side of Dorchester turnpike and the westerly side of Dorchester street; thence in a straight line to the southerly terminus of the “tenth line,” as described in the fourth section of the two hundred seventy-eighth chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred forty-seven.

Sect. 4. The lines established by this act, so far as they vary from existing lines, are indicated by red lines upon plan C, annexed to the report of the commissioners on harbors and flats, made the present session, and printed in senate document, number one hundred and twenty-five.

Sect. 5. So much of the railroad of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company, as is located outside of the harbor lines established by law in the South Bay, shall be constructed and built upon piles, and not upon a solid filling; and so much of the if railroad of the said company as is located upon the South Boston flats, inside the commissioners’ lines of solid filling, shall be constructed upon solid filling, and not upon piles.

(May 1864).

1867

1868 Dearborn map of Boston

SENATE No. 396. "AN ACT: In addition to an Act to authorize the City of Boston to Lay out a Public Street or Way Across the South Bay. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: For the purpose of making a foundation available for the main water-pipes of the Cochituate water works between wards seven and eleven, in the city of Boston, the said city of Boston is hereby authorized to lay out a public street or way, not exceeding one hundred feet in width, across the South Bay; said street starting from the easterly side of said bay, at or near the junction of Federal and Dorchester Streets, in said Boston; thence running in a westerly direction, crossing the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad at grade, to Pine Island: thence in a westerly direction, crossing the marsh and the Roxbury Canal to the junction of East Chester Park and Albany Street, in said Boston. The said city is hereby authorized to construct said street with solid filling, except so much of said street as may extend for the distance of three hundred feet in an easterly direction from the harbor commissioners’ line on the westerly side of said bay; within which three hundred feet the said city is hereby authorized to construct a pile bridge with a suitable draw and piles, under the direction of the harbor commissioners. The city of Boston is hereby authorized to locate, construct and maintain a railroad track or tracks from some convenient point on the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, near where the street herein authorized crosses said railroad, and may extend said track or tracks in an easterly direction or westerly direction; said railroad tracks to be used only for the construction of said street and in carrying out the purposes authorized by chapter one hundred and eighty of the acts of eighteen hundred and sixty-six." (June 1869).

SENATE No. 397. "AN ACT: In addition to an Act authorizing the City of Boston to lay water-pipes in and through tide-waters. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: The city of Boston is hereby authorized o lay water-pipes from a. point at or near the junction of Federal and Dorchester Streets in said city, in a westerly direction, crossing the Boston, Hartford, and Erie Railroad to Pine Island, so called, thence in a westerly direction crossing the marsh and the Roxbury Canal to the junction of East Chester Park and Albany Street in said city: provided, that such pipe or pipes shall cross the Roxbury Canal by means of syphon, so as not to obstruct navigation; and shall also cross the South Bay by syphon under so much of the channel as the harbor commissioners shall direct. And all things done under this act, so far as relates to the crossing or tide-waters, shall be subject the determination and approval of the harbor commissioners, as provided in the fourth section of chapter one hundred and forty-nine of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-six; and provided, that this act shall in no wise impair the legal right of any person." (June 1869).

Massachusetts Enfranchisement Act of 1869 (Chapter 463)
The Legislature enfranchised all Native American Indians and declared that they were citizens of the Commonwealth, entitled to all the rights, privileges and duties of other citizens. The Act also affirmed that lands previously set off to any Indian were to become the property of such person and his heirs in fee simple.

1869, Boston Evening Transcript

"Completion of Albany Street. Albany street is no open for public travel throughout its entire length to the Highlands,
the bridge over Roxbury creek having been completed."

"The original Broadway Bridge (Massachusetts Highway Department No. B-16-125), which spans Fort Point Channel, was completed in 1870 and was one of the first bridges in the City of Boston built under the jurisdiction of the City Engineer's office, which was previously charged with designing and building the city's water supply system. Due to a poor design, the bridge failed, and by 1875 the superstructure was almost totally rebuilt."

BROADWAY BRIDGE, NPS, HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA, HAER No. MA-129, MA-135.

1870

May 1872

1873 Roxbury Ward Map

1874 Boston Ward Map

"In a report to the Honorable City Council of December 17, 1874, they called the attention of that body to the conditions of the old Roxbury Canal, crossing under Albany Street; to the Stoney Brook Sewer, discharging upon the Back Bay flats; and the Muddy Brook Sewer, between Brookline Avenue and Downer St. The tide in the canal was sluggish they pointed out, and the discharge of three or four sewers into it, leaves shallow water at low tide "through which the foul gases from the putrid bottom can be seen bubbling into the atmosphere." It is so bad, they stated, that in the streets around there, there is a daily average of 230 patients who require pure air. They found equal nuisances at the other two points of discharge. The Board of Health had no doubt that the prevalent summer diseases of the City were largely influenced by that poisoned atmosphere. If the sewage could not be retained and used but had to be discharged into the water and lost, it would be best, in the opinion of the Board, that large main sewers should be built to carry the sewage out to sea. As for which came first, the water or sewer pipe, they regretted that water pipes had preceded the laying of sewers, but they thought it fair to say that the supply of pure water had become a necessity and the people would have suffered without it."

"Pointing out that the drainage was discharged at 100 points along the waterfront, sometimes at low tide where it would settle on the mud and sometimes at flood tide where it often washed back in, the Committee reminded its readers that the sewage had so built up in the Roxbury Canal that it became necessary to dredge there. That the stench and nozious gases emanating from the sewage were a source of ill health, they had no doubt."

The Water and Sewer Works of the City of Boston 1630 - 1978, Neil J. Savage, Boston Water and Sewer Commission (1981).

July 1875, Boston Evening Transcript

Boston Main, 1875

1875 Sewer Outlets

1876 Boston Harbor Survey

1876, Boston Post

1876

"Standard Sugar Company worked in conjunction with the state to fill the South Boston Flats in the 1870s, which resulted in the most northern extension, into Boston Harbor, of the east side of Fort Point Channel. In 1873 the state began to build the seawalls and finish the filling that the Boston Wharf Company had begun. While most of this work was in the Commonwealth Flats area, east of Fort Point Channel, some was along the seawall as defined by the U.S. Harbor Commission. By 1876 the wall was complete and the fill, behind the wall, was in place by 1879. This resulted ...in a long, lobster-claw shaped projection extending almost a mile north of First Street and clearly defining the east side of the Fort Point Channel."

Fort Point Channel, Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. MA-130 (June 1996).

1876

1877

1878

1877

Ch 217 - An Act to enable the city of Boston to abate a nuisance EXISTING therein, AND FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE PUBLIC, HEALTH IN SAID CITY, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Be it enacted, as follows :
"Section 1. The city of Boston may purchase or other wise take, for the purpose of abating the nuisance now existing in and about the Roxbury Canal, so called, the lands and easements, with the buildings and other fixtures thereon, situate and lying within the district hereinafter bounded and described, to wit :—commencing at the junction of Harrison Avenue and the northerly line of East Chester Park, and thence running by said northerly line of East Chester Park produced in an easterly direction across the said Roxbury Canal to Swett Street, thence by the northerly line of Swett Street to Northampton Street, thence by the northerly line of Northampton Street to Harrison Avenue, and thence by the easterly line of Harrison Avenue to the point of beginning. Said city shall within sixty days from the time it shall take said lands description of or easements, file in the office of the registry of deeds for the county of Suffolk, a description of the lands or easements so taken as certain as is required in a common conveyance of lands, and a statement that the same are taken pursuant to the provisions of this act ; which said description and statement shall be signed by the mayor of said city, and the title to all lands and easements so taken shall vest in the city of Boston, and if any party whose laud or easement is taken, shall agree with the said city upon the damage done to him by the said taking, the same shall be paid to him by the said city forthwith. And it shall be the duty of the city of Boston forthwith to raise the grade of said territory so purchased or taken, by filling up the same, including that portion of the Roxbury Canal lying within the described district, with good clean earth or 'gravel, and with reference to a complete drainage thereof, so as to abate the present nuisance, and to preserve the health of the city..."

1878

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1879

1879 | City Property: Auditor's Report

1880's

1880

1880, Proposed Sewer for the Waters of Stony Brook

1880

City Engineer's Report, 1881

1881

Boston Events (1884)

1885

"Prior to the Civil War, there were frequent demands to fill in both South Cove and Fort Point Channel to gain more buildable land, but in the years following the Civil War, as the demand for coal, building supplies, and other bulk materials grew, commerce in both the cove and channel greatly increased.

In 1887, as part of a program in harbor improvements, the Federal Government deepened the channel as far as the Congress Street Bridge."

BROADWAY BRIDGE, NPS, HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA, HAER No. MA-129, MA-135.

Atlas of Boston and Roxbury Wharf 1883

1890's

1890

1892

1894

1895

1895 Roxbury Atlas

1895

1896

"By 1893 the powerful New Haven Railroad had bought three of the four rail lines that entered Boston. The railroad agreed to the mayor's proposal and with the backing of the city, in 1896, organized the Boston Terminal Company to acquire the necessary land and to construct and operate the new terminal. The South Station project was substantial... The project necessitated not only the realignment of major train lines and construction of a new bridge across the channel but also a reconstruction of portions of the west and east shores of Fort Point Channel as well. Work began in July 1896, and the new station, when it opened on December 30, 1898, was considered the largest train station in the world. After the completion of South Station, the channel was, for the most part, in its present configuration."

Fort Point Channel, Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. MA-130 (June 1996).

1896

1897

The Boston Globe, May 18 1897

Boston Harbor, 1897 (Fort Point at bottom left)

Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899
Pub. L. 55-425

AN ACT making appropriations for the construction, repair, and preservation of certain public works on rivers and harbors, and for other purposes. March 3, 1899.

"Improving harbor at Boston, Massachusetts: Continuing improvement, seventy-five thousand dollars: Provided, That this sum may, in the discretion of the Secretary of War, be used in the preservation and improvement of said harbor, including the protection of Great Head and other headlands and islands in and about said harbor, to prevent further washing away by the sea: Provided further, That five thousand dollars of this sum may, in the discretion of the Secretary of War, be used in improving Chelsea Creek: Provided further, That the Secretary of War may use five thousand dollars thereof and enter into a contract or contracts for such materials and work as may be necessary for the completion of the improvement in accordance with the project recommended in the report printed on pages eight hundred and eighty-seven et sequentes of the Report of the Chief of Engineers for eighteen hundred and ninety-eight ; such improvement to provide for a channel one thousand two hundred feet wide and thirty feet deep from the main ship channel in President Roads through Broad Sound Channel, to be paid for as appropriations may from time to time be made by law, not to exceed in the aggregate four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, exclusive of the amount herein and heretofore appropriated."

1899

1899 Roxbury Atlas

1900's

1901

Congress St, Fort Point, 1902

1902

1903

Boston Globe, 1904

Fort Point, 1905

1906

1907

1909, Boston Globe

1910's

1915 Roxbury Atlas Ward Map

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT of 1912
37 Stat. 309, Pub. L. 62-265

AN ACT To change the name of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service to the Public Health Service, to increase the pay of officers of said service, and for other purposes. August 14, 1912.

"The Public Health Service may study and investigate the diseases of man and condition's influencing the propagation and spread thereof, including sanitation and sewage and the pollution either directly or indirectly of the navigable streams and lakes of the United States, and it may from time to time issue information in the form of publications for the use of the public."

1913

1914

1915 Boston Harbor with South Bay on the right

1917

1920's

1929, The Standard Times

Fort Point Channel (1929)

Fort Point Channel (1930)

Fort Point Channel (1929)

1930's

1930

1931

1938

EDR, 1938

1939, Winter, Fort Point Channel

1944, Fort Point Channel, Boston Inner Harbor

1944

EDR, 1946

1946

1947

1948

In South Bay, "two wharfs were still in existence as late as 1948."
Fort Point Channel, Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. MA-130 (June 1996).

Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 Enacted

1948

1948, Master Highway Plan

1950

A Study for the Development of Fort Point Channel, South Bay, and Adjacent Areas, Port of Boston Authority (1950).

1950

1952

EDR, 1952

1952

1953

1954

MA Legislature (June 10 1954)

ma_actsresolvespass1954mass.pdf
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From Boston Harbor to South Bay there are seven drawbridges six for highway traffic and one for railroad traffic. The decreasing use of the waterway coupled with the inconvenience and delay attendant to the openings of these drawbridges prompted the enactment of Chapter 638 of the Acts of 1954 which revised the harbor lines, declared all waterway above Dorchester Avenue (approximately 1.3 miles long) as non-navigable and authorized the responsible agencies to maintain these four bridges without a draw."

1959 Senate Bill 0498. Report of the Special Commission Relative to Filling and Improving South Bay and Part of Fort Point Channel in the City Of Boston: A Comprehensive Report for the Filling and Improving a Portion of Fort Point Channel and South Bay. (1959).

1955

1955, South Bay, City Trash Incinerator

1955

1955, Aerial

1956

EDR, 1956

1957

Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land

1957

March 1958

State House, Boston, Massachusetts | January 28, 1959
The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

"By virtue of Chapter 638 of the Acts of 1954, that part of Fort Point Channel and the South Bay and its tributaries east of the Dorchester Avenue Bridge is a non-navigable tidal stream. It is the natural outlet for surface damage contributed from adjacent land. The entire tidal stream is owned by the Commonwealth. Part of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway is now being constructed adjacent to the tidal stream from Broadway Bridge to Massachusetts Avenue and crosses it as earth embankment with construction of a culvert approximately opposite Union Park Street. A similar conduit is to be constructed at Dover Street under a Chapter 90 contract that is now in progress. As previously stated, the tidal stream above the Dorchester Avenue Bridge is a natural surface drainage outlet for adjacent territory. Surface drainage in the form of storm water is discharged into the tidal stream from several storm overflows located along its route. Because the storm overflows are from combined sewers, diluted sanitary sewage is discharged into the tidal stream during times of storm.

The bed of the tidal stream is dock mud or silt that has become septic over a long period of time from the discharge of diluted sanitary sewage, decaying vegetable matter and fuel oil. As much of the dock mud is exposed to the atmosphere at low tide, its septic condition emanates foul odors that permeate the atmosphere for a mile or more adjacent to its source, a reprehensible condition in view of the proximity of City Hospital. This condition has been greatly aggravated by the construction of that part of the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway adjacent to the tidal stream because the embankment of the expressway that extends into the tidal stream has displaced the dock mud causing mud rolls which not only disseminate foul odors but have created a hazard as was demonstrated recently when two children became mired in the mud up to their armpits and nearly lost their lives. Aside from a sanitary viewpoint, there is also an esthetic consideration. The very appearance of the tidal stream at any stage of the tide, but particularly at low tide when the flats are exposed, is revolting. To tolerate such a condition adjacent to a modem highway is unthinkable. The situation should be corrected without delay.

To correct the above described intolerable condition, it will be necessary to construct a dock wall or bulkhead across Dorchester Avenue at the bridge to exclude tide water from flowing upstream; to construct a suitable storm water conduit from this point upstream to Massachusetts Avenue including a branch conduit to pick up Dorchester Brook; connect to the proposed conduit the existing storm overflows that now discharge into tide water within the limits of the proposed conduit; and to fill solid and reclaim the land now occupied by tide water. The size of the proposed conduit, based on hydraulic calculations, a study of the soil conditions to determine the type of foundation required for the proposed conduit, the area of the land to be reclaimed by filling, a location plan and profile of the proposed conduit, an estimated cost of the proposed project based on items of work, and other pertinent engineering data is presented in the attached Engineer's report.

To correct the above described intolerable condition, it will be necessary to construct a dock wall or bulkhead across Dorchester Avenue at the bridge to exclude tide water from flowing upstream; to construct a suitable storm water conduit from this point upstream to Massachusetts Avenue including a branch conduit to pick up Dorchester Brook; connect to the proposed conduit the existing storm overflows that now discharge into tide water within the limits of the proposed conduit; and to fill solid and reclaim the land now occupied by tide water. The size of the proposed conduit, based on hydraulic calculations, a study of the soil conditions to determine the type of foundation required for the proposed conduit, the area of the land to be reclaimed by filling, a location plan and profile of the proposed conduit, an estimated cost of the proposed project based on items of work, and other pertinent engineering data is presented in the attached Engineer's report.

The area of the reclaimed land as set forth in the Engineer's report is for the most part owned by the Commonwealth and, while it is not within the scope of this Commission to present definite plans for its future use, we recognize that land availability in Boston being negligible there is no question but that this area will be desirable for commercial and industrial development with the possible location of a revenue-producing municipal stadium a very real consideration. In order to construct that branch of the proposed conduit required to intercept Dorchester Brook, it will be required that a land taking be made of railroad property....

OUR INVESTIGATION CONVINCES US BEYOND DOUBT THAT THE PROTECTION OF PUBLIC HEALTH, THE NEED FOR ELIMINATING A BLIGHT, THE DEVELOPMENT OF A REVENUE PRODUCING AREA AND THE ELIMINATION OF AN OPEN CESSPOOL IN SUCH PROXIMITY TO A MAJOR HOSPITAL DICTATE THAT THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CONDUIT AND THE FILLING OF THE WATERWAY IS MORE ESSENTIAL THAN EVER AND THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS THAT THE WORK AS OUTLINED IN THIS REPORT BE CARRIED OUT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. A DRAFT OF PROPOSED LEGISLATION TO EFFECTUATE THE ABOVE RECOMMENDATIONS IS ATTACHED.

Very truly yours, SPECIAL COMMISSION Established in accordance with Chapter 130, of the Resolves of 1958."

Fort Point Channel and South Bay, Report of the Special Commission Relative to Filling and Improving South Bay and Part of Fort Point Channel in the City of Boston, Senate — No. 498 (1959).

1959 Senate Bill 0498.
Report Of The Special Commission Relative To Filling And Improving South Bay
And Part Of Fort Point Channel In The City Of Boston:
A Comprehensive Report for the Filling and Improving a Portion of Fort Point Channel and South Bay.
Senate Legislative Documents: http://archives.lib.state.ma.us/2452/263604

"Fort Point Channel and South Bay constitute an estuary of Boston Harbor approximately two miles long serving as a natural water barrier separating Boston Proper and South Boston. South Bay, which extends from Massachusetts Avenue to the Dover Street Bridge, has as its upper extremity a shallow channel known as Roxbury Canal. Fort Point Channel is defined as the waterway extending below the Dover Street Bridge to the inner harbor at Northern Avenue. At a point approximately halfway between Dorchester Avenue Bridge and Massachusetts Avenue the Dorchester Brook, a branch estuary, discharges into the easterly side of South Bay in an irregular open channel.

During the 1700’s this area, known then as Gallows Cove, operated as a thriving maritime center capable of handling vessels of all descriptions engaged in world commerce. The land expansion of Boston Proper, South Boston and Dorchester combined with requirements for increased wharfage succeeded in reducing the waterway to a relatively narrow channel. Progress, in the nature
of bridge crossings, for land transportation, limited the movement of large sailing vessels causing owners to seek more accessible berthing facilities. The merchants relocated their operations to follow suit thus initiating the decline of the area which has continued unchecked to the present state of dilapidation.

From Boston Harbor to South Bay there are seven drawbridges six for highway traffic and one for railroad traffic. The decreasing use of the waterway coupled with the inconvenience and delay attendant to the openings of these drawbridges prompted the enactment of Chapter 638 of the Acts of 1954 which revised the harbor lines, declared all waterway above Dorchester Avenue (approximately 1.3 miles long) as non-navigable and authorized the responsible agencies to maintain these four bridges without a draw."

1959 Senate Bill 0498. Report of the Special Commission Relative to Filling and Improving South Bay and Part of Fort Point Channel in the City Of Boston: A Comprehensive Report for the Filling and Improving a Portion of Fort Point Channel and South Bay.

1960

Nov. 16 1960, The Republican

1960

Nov. 16 1960, The Republican

"One stumbling block is that the channel and canal are 'navigable waters' and come under the jurisdiction of the Federal Department of Defense which must approve before the water area can be filled in. It is believed that this obstacle could be easily overcome, especially with President John. F Kennedy in the White House." (1960).

1960

EDR, 1960

May 13 1960

1961

May 21 1961

1962, Metro Boston Aerial

1962

1962 Chap. 0762.
An Act Providing For The Filling And Improvement Of South Bay, Roxbury Canal And Dorchester Brook
And Certain Territories Adjacent Thereto.

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1962

March 1962

June 1962

July 1962, Boston Globe

1962

Feb. 12 1963, The Boston Globe

1964

Report: "Pollution Effects of Stormwater and Overflows from Combined Sewer A Preliminary Appraisal,"
United States Public Health Service (1964).

June 1964, Boston Globe

Feb. 1965, Boston Globe

Feb. 1965

Feb. 28 1965, Boston Globe

The Water Quality Act of 1965
(Pub.L. 89-234).

An Act to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, to establish the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration, to provide grants for research and development, to increase grants for construction of municipal sewage treatment works.
"SEC. 6. (a) The Secretary is authorized to make grants to any combined sewer. State, municipality, or intermunicipal or interstate agency for the purpose of assisting in the development of any project which will demonstrate a new or improved method of controlling the discharge into any waters of untreated or inadequately treated sewage or other waste from sewers which carry storm water or both storm water and sewage or other wastes, and for the purpose of reports, plans, and specifications in connection therewith. The Secretary is authorized to provide for the conduct of research and demonstrations relating to new or improved methods of controlling the discharge into any waters of untreated or inadequately treated sewage or other waste from sewers which carry storm water or both storm water and sewage or other wastes, by contract with public or private agencies and institutions and with individuals without regard to sections 3648 and 3709 of the Revised Statute."

1965

Feb. 1965, Boston Globe

Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966 
Public Law No. 89-753

S.2947 — 89th Congress (1965-1966), SEC. 101
"(2) Each planning agency receiving a grant under this subsection shall develop a comprehensive pollution control and abatement plan for the basin which--
(A) is consistent with any applicable water quality standards established pursuant to current law within the basin;
(B) recommends such treatment works and sewer systems as will provide the most effective and economical means of collection, storage, treatment, and purification of wastes and recommends means to encourage both municipal and industrial use of such works and systems; and
(C) recommends maintenance and improvement of water quality standards within the basin or portion thereof and recommends methods of adequately financing those facilities as may be necessary to implement the plan.
(3) For the purposes of this subsection the term 'basin' includes, but is not limited to, rivers and their tributaries, streams, coastal waters, sounds, estuaries, bays, lakes, and portions thereof, as well as the lands drained thereby."

"South End: View of filling in of Fort Point Channel at City Hospital", (March 26, 1966)

South End: View of filling in of Fort Point Channel at City Hospital, Boston Redevelopment Authority, March 26 1966, https://cityofboston.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_43c90419-13f8-4c80-a661-8fb31ddd2843/

April 1966

An Act Providing for the Development According to an Approved Plan of South Bay, Roxbury Canal, and Dorchester Brook, and Certain Adjacent Territories after Filling, MA Senate Bill No. 316 (1966).

April 1966

1966

Sept. 1966

1967

"The City of Boston accounts for nearly one half of the debris sources in the Harbor."

"On 11 July 1967, the initial Public Hearing for this project was held in Boston. Attended by about 60 persons, the intention of this meeting was to provide all interests the opportunity to express their views and desires prior to the actual start of the Corps investigation. Comments indicated that a waterfront cleanup program aimed at the elimination of all sources of debris was desired."

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATMENT ON DEBRIS REMOVAL FROM BOSTON HARBOR, MA,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1980).

July 20 1967

The Stadium "Emergency" (1967)

Aug. 18 1967, Boston Globe

Jan. 13 1969

Oct. 17 1969, Boston Globe

1968

1969

EDR, 1969

1969

Oct. 16, 1969

1970

1970, Fort Point Channel

1970

1971

1971, AERIAL

1971

March 1971

1972

The Clean Water Act of 1972

1972

June 21 1972

1973

1974

Aug 2, 1975

Aug 7, 1975

Aug 12, 1975

EMMA, 1975

1975

1975 or 1976

1976

1977

1978

EDR, 1978

1980's

USGS, 1980

EDR 1980

1981

1983

EPA: BOSTON HARBOR: FIGHTING FOR ITS FUTURE (1985)
UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY REGION ONE (1985).
BOSTON HARBOR: FIGHTING FOR ITS FUTURE produced for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region One by William Sargent with additional funding from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=910225TU.txt

"Boston harbor, on the surface it looks like one of America’s most attractive urban scenes. Shoppers flock to waterfront restaurants, commuters board new passenger ferries, and tourists enjoy the historic sights and par flung islands of Boston’s new harbor islands park. But beneath this shining surface there is another scene. A fifth of Boston’s winter flounder have cancer-of the liver, though this hasn't diminished local pride in the fish. Beaches close when overloaded treatment plants wash tons of human sewage to their shores. Divers tell of swimming through murky waters and a ghostly fog of toilet paper that hangs just above the harbor floor. In fact Boston has been declared America’s dirtiest harbor, much of it an open sewer as polluted as the harbors of Bangkok, Istanbul or Calcutta. “I used to fish there and now I can’t fish there no more”; “I like the harbor, it's just too bad you can't go swimming”; “you can't water ski you can't swim, what going to do, ride…”’ “I’d like to see the harbor cleaned up, the dollars’ worth it.”

Yes we've got to clean this up. Our sewer system built in the 1800's has grown to include 5,000 miles of pipes. Every day almost half a billion gallons of sewage from 43 communities pours into two antiquated facilities, the deer island plant in Winthrop and the Nut Island plant in Quincy. When someone flushes the toiler in Framingham, washes dishes in Burlington or dumps industrial or domestic chemicals down the drain in Walpole, all their wastes end up in Boston Harbor. In fact sewage from almost half the state's population flows into the system and, although 3 out of 4 of these people don't realize it, their sewage also ends up in Boston Harbor. Often the system fails. On Mother’s Day 1983, the Deer Island plant broke down and this building filled with raw sewage. Scuba divers bad to swim down through two stories worth of human waste to drain the plant. After every rain storm the system overflows and raw sewage is discharged directly into Boston Harbor from combined sewer overflows. A lot of times !'be water is too bad, especially after the storm we just had. I wouldn't go into the water. even with this suit I have on.

Every day more contaminated wastewater plows out of the two sewage systems than out of the Charles, the Mystic, and the Neponset rivers combined. All of this is l>one in violation of the law, and the EPA gained national recognition when it sued in federal court to have the harbor cleaned up. Scientists monitor the effects of this constant pollution. They take regular samples near the outfall pipes, also a favorite area for lobster fishermen. “This is a sample from near the outfall.” The samples are analyzed to establish the amount of heavy metals like cadmium and mercury that have flowed into the harbor from over 5,000 industries that use the sewer system. Now these industries must remove such dangerous contaminants before they enter the sewer system. In many places sewage from the last 50 years has so polluted the harbor that no animals can live on the bottom. In other places large numbers of pollution tolerant species crowd out more fragile forms of life. Contaminants in the harbor are concentrated as they are move up the food chain from bait fish to bluefish to flounder, and the ultimate consumer man. The islands themselves rave become a dumping ground. Plastics, trash and oil pollution litter the shore. Yes, we have indeed reached a dangerous situation in Boston Harbor. But we also have a unique opportunity. We must act now to return the harbor to the sparkling, unspoiled centerpiece of the hub. Clean, alive and accessible to all, Boston Harbor can once again be the crown jewel of New England.

Going back in time, Boston Harbor did not always look this way. 13,000 years ago the glacier which covered North America was melting back, the sea level was rising, leaving the partially submerged landscape of rolling hills and jagged cliffs of modern Boston Harbor. Indians lived here 4000 years ago. They built elaborate fishing weirs like this one found below the Boylston Street subway station. The area provided them with food and shelter. They called the peninsula Shawmut, a good place to land a canoe. A spring of cool fresh water bubbling out of the side of Beacon Hill attracted settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Company who left their successful colony in Charlestown and rowed over to Shawmut in 1630. They renamed the area Boston, built a primitive water system and started to create a thriving coastal community with shipping and fishing as its core. Already they had a vision of a great city on a harbor, and already they had urban problems. “The constable shall give speedy notice to Robert Nash, butcher, that be shall remove the stinking garbage out of his yard.” Boston continued to grow and prosper through times of war and through times of peace. Her harbor became the flourishing center of trade and ship building in the new world. The hills of Shawmut were gradually leveled and the harbor filled, creating dry land for the bottom of Beacon Street, and the buildings or the Back Bay and Boston garden. Quincy Market was built on the edge or the new waterfront.

However, by the 1840's sewage became a major problem. The average lifespan in the city was 42 years and epidemics of cholera, typhoid and diphtheria raged through crowded areas. The city physician of Boston reported on the plague. “The disease is confined to parts of the city reclaimed from the ocean. In one apartment the tide bad risen so high that it was necessary to approach the patient by means of a plank while the dead body or an infant was literally sailing about the room in its coffin. Construction was finally started on a new water system. Sewage would be dumped into Boston Harbor to be carried away with the outgoing tide. Today we are left with the remains of that system and the reality that, with pollution, there is no away. Today, we again need a new vision of Boston Harbor. A clean harbor that will bring about another renaissance. And now, for the first time we have the tools to take that vision a reality. The newly formed Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has the power to clean up Boston Harbor, but they can't do it alone. They must have the support, cooperation and sacrifice of the 2 and a half million people who live and work in the communities served by the sewer system. With your support we will see yearly victories in our efforts to clean up Boston Harbor. By 1988 scum will be removed from wastewater. by 1991 sludge will no longer be pumped into the harbor. By 1995 the hew primary treatment plant will be online. And in 1999 a new secondary. treatment plant, one of the largest in the world, will be built on Deer Island, site of the existing plant and the Deer Island prison. Will the costs be high? Yes the costs will be high. But what about the costs of not cleaning up the harbor? that's the gamble we cannot afford to lose.

With yearly victories, we will see an explosion of the in Boston Harbor. Fish, birds and seals will return. By the year 2000 the harbor islands park will be visited by 600,000 people a year, and more than 2 and a half million people will use the passenger ferries. Massachusetts children will be able to swim from the islands and discover their capital city from the water. “Look at the jellyfish!”(laughter). On the harbor islands people will be able to birdwatch, walk and have picnics . They might even bump into Fort Warren's ghostly lady in black. Fishermen will have a safer place to fish and divers will have a new area to discover the adventures of diving in New England. But some may just want to come out here to sit under the trees and enjoy the quiet restfulness or a scenic island only 10 minutes from downtown Boston. With your help, Boston Harbor can once again become the crown jewel of new England. A thriving center of commercial activity but also a place to live, to work, and to enjoy. Clean, alive, and accessible to all, Boston Harbor can be a gift to ourselves and our children. It is up to you."

EDR, 1985

July 23, 1987

Nov. 13, 1987

Jan. 1, 1988

Sept. 21, 1988

Nov. 3 1988, Boston Globe

1989, Boston Globe

1990's

"Discharge of sewage sludge and effluent from 43 communities in the greater Boston metropolitan area has helped make the harbor one of the most polluted in the nation. As part of a court-mandated plan to end pollution of the harbor, effluent will no longer be discharged into the harbor, but instead, by 1995 it will be discharged into Massachusetts Bay through a record-long 15.34 km tunnel. By the year 2000 all of the sewage is scheduled to receive full secondary treatment. The public is concerned about long-term effects of the new ocean outfall on the environment, including Cape Cod Bay and Stellwagen Bank, which is an important habitat for whales and a newly designated national marine sanctuary. The bay has been additionally stressed by dumping of low-level radioactive and other hazardous wastes during the 1950s and 1960s." USGS, A crisis in waste management, economic vitality, and a coastal marine environment: Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay, January 1, 1994. [Article link].

Oct. 21 1994, The Boston Globe

EDR, 1995

FORT POINT CHANNEL HAER NO. MA-130 (1996)
"Location: Between South Boston and Boston Proper, beginning at Boston Harbor immediately north of the Northern A venue Bridge and heading approximately 1.25 miles south to the West Fourth Street Bridge. Suffolk County, Boston, MA.
Dates: From 1804 through 1960.
Engineer & Builder: City of Boston; Boston Wharf Company; Boston Terminal Company.
Owner: City of Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Amtrack, Massachusetts Bay Transit Corporation, Gillette Company
Present Use: Partially navigable water channel."

"Fort Point Channel is a waterway between Boston Proper and South Boston. It was named for Fort Point, a promontory of the original Shawmut Peninsula at !lie base of Fort Hill. The waterway was originally a natural channel leading from South Bay out past the South Boston flats to Boston Harbor, but the channel, as we know it today, is manmade and the result of periodic fill episodes.• At present the channel runs from Boston Harbor south where it terminates in a culvert beneath the West Fourth Street Bridge. It is about 1 1/4 miles long with a varied width between 260 feet and 1,110 feet. Its depth varies between a few feet at its southern terminus to 23 feet at mean low water at its mouth.

While individuals were free to establish wharves and other businesses along the waterfront, they had to do so within the parameters of the harbor commission bounds. The lines along the west .side of the channel drawn at that time are essentially the present western boundary of the channel. The east side commission line was established in 1840 and extends south, from what is today Summer Street to the Dorchester A venue Bridge. Except for the filling of South Bay and a small slip on the east side, the channel reached its present configuration by about 1898. Before the nineteenth century, the area that contains the channel was a wide inlet leading to Roxbury Harbor, a large shallow body of water and mud flats fed by tides and creeks. On the west was the neck of the Shawmut Peninsula, and on the east were the farms of Dorchester Neck (now South Boston)."

Fort Point Channel, Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. MA-130 (June 1996).

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The Boston Globe, Feb. 6 1997

June 1998

1999, Boston Globe

1999

2000's

US EPA BAN ON LARGE-CAPACITY CESSPOOLS
April 2000

MA ORTHO IMAGERY, AERIAL, 2001

Google Earth, Historical Aerials, Dec. 2002

2003

The Boston Globe, May 21 2005

Google Earth, Historical Aerial Images, 2007

The Boston Globe, April 1 2007

EDR, 2008

Google Earth, Historical Aerial Images, 2010

EDR, 2012

MA/USGS ORTHO IMAGERY, AERIAL, 2013-2014

Google Earth, Historical Aerial Images, 2016

BOSTON CITY COUNCIL, Transcript, THURS 11/29/2018 4:00 - 6:00 PM

"I'm going to dive into the work that Charles River Watershed Association has done on this parcel. At Charles river watershed association we like to learn lessons from nature. There's a long history there with nature, much longer than our human history so we think there's some wisdom there to call from. So as councilor already mentioned this area was once water. It was once the south bay. The south bay is not just a shopping center, it is also an inlet from Boston Harbor.

So in the 1700's, 1800's, it was essentially completely under water. As we zoom into the 1900's, this is the map from 1934, what we see, and i apologize it's a bit hard for folks to see, what we see is the area was filled progressively from the northwest to South, to the southeastern side of the parcel. And that in the 1920's and 1930's, there did remain a canal as well as a small area of brook, and there's a photo of 1925 which purports to be from Albany street which was essentially still a shipping canal.

Interestingly, if you overlay the city of Boston’s current storm water infrastructure on to this map, what you see is that canal is now a pipe that Boston water and sewer commission calls the Roxbury canal. And that area of brook is also a pipe, an underground pipe that the Boston water and sewer commission calls the Dorchester brook conduit. So these water ways are still there. They're just underground now. So we're here today to make two recommendations to the city council in considering this decision.

Option one would be to consider preserving this area and restoring this area as a natural flood controlled barrier. This is an option we're calling Restore the Bay. An example, if you were to preserve a 300 acre land mass in this area, you could store water from a 10 storm for the surround -- inch storm. You have flexibility in sea level rise along this vulnerable point along the coast. Having open paces and improve water quality and habitat. An area we're calling the four point wetland.

Option two with development, restore some stream and green infrastructure and some natural spaces incorporated into any other decisions that the city makes with the community for moving this parcel forward into a new use. By daylighting these culverted streams, the Roxbury Canal and the Dorchester Brook you could potentially protect the surrounding area into a modest rainfall event like a one year storm. Bringing those culverted streams out of this thick size culvert and providing some natural flood bank will improve your ability to manage stormwater, reduce flooding, possibly reduce combined sewer overflows while also creating a new open space and improving water quality and habitat.

So here's what the area right by the DPW building looks like today. If you were to can culvert that stream, you can see it.

I just want to close by saying our recommendations are consistent with the recent report out from the city it mentioned resilient Boston harbor for creating resilient and re-envisioned Fort Point Channel, engaging the neighborhood in protecting this area and beginning some of the important work to protect this area from both stormwater and coastal flooding. Thank you."

Roxbury Canal Conduit, 2019 Drone Footage | "sediment and debris build-up over 3ft through conduit" and "tidal work window was determined to be about five hours"

Roxbury Canal Conduit, 2019 Drone Footage | appearance of some sort of marine worm swimming in the murky water

Roxbury Canal Conduit, 2019 Drone Footage | appearance of iron oxidizing bacteria

ESRI, JUNE 2024, AERIAL

South Bay & The Roxbury CanalBoston, MA

Conditions at the current Mouth of the Roxbury Canal (Dec. 2025)

Site History (19th Century-Current)

1800's-1820's

1830-1850's

1860's-1870's

1880's

1890's

​1900's

1910's

1920's

1930's

1980's

1990's

2000's

South Bay & The Roxbury Canal
Boston, MA

1900's