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India Wharf (1804-c. 1962) in
File:1814 FinancialDistrict Boston map Hales.png, Detail of 1814 map of Boston, showing India Wharf and vicinity
File:IndiaWharf Boston 19thc HABS MA-2-76.jpg, India Wharf, Boston, 19th century
File:1870 FinancialDistrict Boston map byFFuchs JohnWeik detail2.png, Overview of wharves, 1870 (India Wharf 3rd from left)
File:1935 IndiaWharf Boston byAHaskell HABS MA-2-76 detail3.jpg, India Wharf, Boston, 1935
File:2010 IndiaWharf Boston3.jpg, Harbor Towers, on former site of India Wharf, 2010
India Wharf Stores
306-308 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, Suffolk, MA {{coord, 42, 21, 28.25, N, 71, 3, 0.62, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title Transport infrastructure completed in 1804 Commercial buildings completed in 1807 Wharves in Boston Boston Harbor Former buildings and structures in Boston Economic history of Boston Financial District, Boston 19th century in Boston Charles Bulfinch buildings
India Wharf (1804-c. 1962) in 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 ...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
, flourished in the 19th century, when it was one of the largest commercial wharves in the port. The structure began in 1804 to accommodate international trade at a time when several other improvements to the Boston waterfront occurred, such as the creation of Broad Street and India Street.
History
Funders and organizers of the construction of India Wharf in 1803 on the waterfront near Long Wharf includedFrancis Cabot Lowell
Francis Cabot Lowell (April 7, 1775 – August 10, 1817) was an American businessman for whom the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, is named. He was instrumental in bringing the Industrial Revolution to the United States.
Early life
Francis Cabot ...
, Uriah Cotting, Henry Jackson, James Lloyd Jr., and Harrison Gray Otis. Builders completed the wharf in 1804. Architect Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tra ...
designed the building atop the wharf, completed in 1807. The long stone building housed 32 stores. An observer in 1815 described: "Across from the long wharves, or in the western part of the city, the India Wharf runs from north to south. An immense stone store, 1,340 feet in length, is divided into rooms containing merchandise from the East Indies...."
Merchants operating from India Wharf included China traders Russell and Company (1824); Samuel Austin, Jr.; James Carter; J.T. Coolidge; Samuel Devens; Thomas Dixon; Francis Ellis; Thomas and Edward Motley; Henry Oxnard; John Pratt & Son; Robert B. Storer; Thwing & Perkins. Also on the wharf were grocers Edward Keays and John Worster; cooper John Lang; broker Joseph Hall; iron dealers Perrin & Ellis; painter Jacob Thaxter; hairdresser Lewis Johnson. Other firms included "Thomas Wigglesworth; W.F. Cunningham & Co.; George T. Lyman; Bullard & Lee; the Higginsons;... W. Windsor Fay; E.A. Homer; B. Burgess; Minot & Hooper; Boardman & Pope; all well-known merchants of their day. ...Here also were the consulates of Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and Russia." The Norris and Baxter dining saloon maintained a presence on the wharf, c. 1857.
Through the mid-19th century, India Wharf became Boston's "headquarters of the trade with the Orient and many valuable cargoes from Canton, Calcutta, Russia and the Mediterranean ports were discharged there. ...There were 30 stores in the block. Many Bostonians of today can recall the time when several large square rig
Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called ''yards'' and ...
gers were moored at the wharf, unloading their cargoes of tea, coffee, spices and fruit." Shipping activity continued on the wharf into the 20th century.
Demolition of the wharf and the long building occurred in stages, c. 1868-1962. Since 1971, the brutalist high-rise Harbor Towers
The Harbor Towers are two 40-story residential towers located on the waterfront of Boston, Massachusetts, located between the New England Aquarium and the Rowes Wharf mixed-use development. Harbor Towers I, the taller of the two towers, stands ...
have occupied the former site of India Wharf.India Wharf is 100 years old. Boston Daily Globe. March 13, 1910. p.53.
Images
See also
*Maritime Fur Trade
The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in ex ...
References
Further reading
* Improvements at India Wharf: New Lease of Business Life of the Old Boston and Portland and Metropolitan Lines. Boston Daily Globe. July 12, 1882. p. 3. * Sailor's body evidently: Picked Up in the Dock at India Wharf, ... Mangled. Boston Daily Globe. April 22, 1901. p. 2. * Not for her: Lucky Penny Brought No Good Fortune. One of the Few Things Found in Miss Cahill's Pocket. She Committed Suicide Wednesday Night. Body Found Yesterday Off India Wharf. Owed Her Landlady and Had Been Out of Work. Out of Work. Highly Spoken Of. Boston Daily Globe. June 7, 1901. p. 6. * Five rounded up: Italians and Others in a Fight on India Wharf—Stinson Cut—Some Had Revolvers. Boston Daily Globe. June 5, 1906. p. 6. * * Last tribute paid to 176 lost on ship: kin of those on the Portland in 1898 cast flowers from India Wharf in Boston. New York Times. Nov 27, 1948. p. 28. * 5-Alarm Fire Sweeps Boston's Historic India Wharf. New York Times. March 4, 1955. p. 16.External links
* Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of CongressIndia Wharf Stores
306-308 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, Suffolk, MA {{coord, 42, 21, 28.25, N, 71, 3, 0.62, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title Transport infrastructure completed in 1804 Commercial buildings completed in 1807 Wharves in Boston Boston Harbor Former buildings and structures in Boston Economic history of Boston Financial District, Boston 19th century in Boston Charles Bulfinch buildings