Telegraph Hill is a historic site in

Hull, Massachusetts Hull is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, located on a peninsula at the southern edge of Boston Harbor. Its population was 10,072 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Hull is the smallest town by land area in P ...

. The site was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1976. It is now part of Fort Revere Park.

History

The site was first used as a fort in 1776 to defend the port of

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 first telegraph tower was built in 1827. Several other telegraph stations later occupied the site until 1938, when radio communications made the site obsolete. In 1903, United States Government built a 120 foot high, 25 foot diameter reinforced concrete tower to contain a 20-foot diameter, 118,000-gallon steel water storage tank to serve

Fort Revere Fort Revere is an historic site situated on a small peninsula located in Hull, Massachusetts. It is situated on Telegraph Hill (Hull, Massachusetts), Telegraph Hill in Hull Village and contains the remains of two seacoast fortifications, one f ...

. Erected by the Hennebique Construction Company, the tower was one of the earliest concrete water towers in the United States, and likely the first in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. It also had a secondary benefit as an observation tower for the Army. The tower was restored in 1975 and designated an

American Water Landmark An American Water Landmark is a landmark within the United States, Canada, or Mexico that is a historic location and is associated in some way with water. The American Water Works Association American Water Works Association (AWWA) is an interna ...

in 2003. It was periodically open to the public until mid-2012 when it was closed due to safety concerns.

References

Hull, Massachusetts Historic districts in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Water supply infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts {{PlymouthCountyMA-NRHP-stub

History

See also

References