Calf Island, also known as Apthorps Island, is a windswept

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

situated some offshore of downtown

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in the

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a national recreation area situated among the islands of Boston Harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. The area is made up of a collection of islands, together with a former island and a peninsul ...

. The island has a permanent size of , plus an

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

of a further , and has a thin layer of soil that supports vegetation including wild cherry,

beach plum ''Prunus maritima'', the beach plum, is a species of plum native to the East Coast of the United States. It is a choice wild edible and its few pests and salt tolerance make it a resilient fruit crop for degraded lands and urban soils. Descri ...

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es,

chives Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and ...

, and mock orange. Access is by private boat only. In the 17th century the island was granted to William Brewster of

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the British America, first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the pa ...

, after whom the adjacent islands of Great Brewster, Little Brewster, Middle Brewster and Outer Brewster are named. Subsequently, it was owned by

Charles Apthorp Charles Apthorp (1698–1758) was a merchant and slave trader in Boston, colonial Massachusetts. Apthorp managed his import business from Merchants Row, and "in his day he was called the richest man in Boston." He also served in the employ of th ...

who also owned

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

and other property in the harbor. Over the years, several huts and houses were built on the island, including a colonial style summer estate built by Benjamin P. Cheney, Jr. and his wife, actress

Julia Arthur Julia Arthur (May 3, 1869 – March 28, 1950)Although 1868 is accepted as the year of her birth, both ''The National Cyclopaedia of National Biography'' and ''Who Was Who in America'' give 1869 as the year. was a Canadian-born stage and film act ...

, in 1902. Today only ruins remain. Illegal boxing matches were staged on the island in the late 19th century. In the 1920s, the Army planned to install a pair of guns on Calf Island as part of the

Harbor Defenses of Boston The Harbor Defenses of Boston was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of Boston, Massachusetts from 1895 to 1950, beginning with the Endicott program. These included both coa ...

, along with gun batteries on Deer Island (now underneath the

Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant The Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant (also known as Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant) is located on Deer Island, one of the Boston Harbor Islands in Boston Harbor. The plant is operated by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority ( ...

) and Hog Island (now called Spinnaker Island), to cover the seaward approaches to Boston Harbor. The battery on Calf Island was never built.

References

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