Boston's Ropewalks Part 2
A digital reframing of “Ropewalks of the West End and Beyond”, an 2012 exhibit designed and written by Duane Lucia and Tom Burgess.
Image: This map by Rev. Jeremy Belknap shows the Pearl Street ropewalks and marks the origin and extent of the fire with a dot and dashed line, respectively. (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Mapping Ropewalks at the Turn of the 19th Century
Image: This map made by Samuel Clough c. 1920 shows 3 ropewalks along what is now Myrtle Street. (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Above 3 ropewalks are visible along the future Myrtle Street operated by the Austin brothers, the Cade brothers, and Joseph Carnes. Related ropemaking operations were carried out by the Austins and Aniope Boynton on lots east of the ropewalks.
These ropewalks were sold to residential developers in 1805.
Image: Clough map c. 1920 shows ropewalks at New Street (South Russell Street) and Joy Street (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Along (modern) South Russell Street, William Taylor and Elizabeth Carnes owned a pair of ropewalks. Taylor held a second walk along Allen’s highway, and Elizabeth, who had inherited the ropewalk from her deceased husband, likely left hers to the operation of Joseph Carnes, who owned another walk on Beacon Hill.
Image: Clough map c. 1920 shows 3 ropewalks along what became Allen and Poplar Streets (behind modern-day Massachusetts General Hospital). (Massachusetts Historical Society)
Three ropewalks remained in West Boston (formerly the New Fields, modern West End) in 1798. They were owned by Tyler and Caswell, John Winthrop, and Jeffreys and Russel, respectively. Jeffreys and Russell produced the anchor cable for the USS Constitution in 1797.
The West Boston ropewalks were sold to residential developers in 1807.
Image: Clough c. 1920 shows property of the Austins and William Taylor likely used for ropemaking. (Massachusetts Historical Society)
The plots owned by the Austins on this map are likely the ropewalk formerly owned by Samuel Waldo. The lot owned by Taylor between George (Hancock) and Belknap (Joy) Streets may have been a warehouse used to store hemp and rope.
Image: This detail of the 1814 Hales Map shows the ropewalks on Charles Street (Library of Congress)
After the Great Fire of 1794, 6 ropewalks were established on Charles Street across from the Boston Common on filled land that is now part of the Public Garden. This group of ropewalks suffered a fire in 1806, but survived as the last operational walks in Boston in 1815. In 1819, however, 3 successive fires and the Panic of 1819 effectively ended the viability of the ropewalks on Charles Street.
A Declining Industry in the Industrial Age
Despite ambitious efforts, Boston’s ropewalk industry was unable to survive a mix of national consolidation and the decline of sailing vessels. While the city continued to house multiple ropewalks until the end of the 19th century, and a single walk survived until 1975, the industry steadily declined from the 1820s until its extinction.
By the 1830s there were no longer ropewalks in Boston’s traditional downtown. The walks that remained occupied landfill areas in the Back Bay and Fenway. Eventually the Charlestown Navy Yard held the last surviving walk in Boston (after Charlestown was incorporated into the city in the 1870s).
The McIntyre map of Boston shows how the Back Bay residences were marching steadily toward the fens and the Mill Dam, from which the Boston Hemp Manufacturing Company was constructed. A number of other walks are also visible. (Boston Public Library)
The Boston Hemp Manufacturing Company occupied a site on the engineering masterpiece that was the Back Bay Mill Dam starting in 1831. The only mill dam in history to be capable of operating 24 hours a day, the Back Bay Dam was never fully utilized due to the combined challenges of encroaching railroads and rising prevalence of coal. The ropewalk and other mill-powered factories operated for only a few decades before they were replaced by Commonwealth Avenue and the rest of the Back Bay.
The inventor Daniel Treadwell’s mechanized ropemaking machines were first implemented at this site after successfully creating the machine in 1829. Mechanisms capable of spinning 1,000 tons of cordage a year were installed at the Back Bay site.
In 1835 the Sewall and Day Cordage Company opened on the site of Wentworth Institute and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Six years later Moses Day adopted the spinning jenny for cordage use, an improvement on Treadwell’s mechanization system. The company survived until 1890, when it was taken over by National Cordage Company, an attempted monopolistic venture based out of New Jersey that collapsed during an 1895 recession, closing the Fenway walk. Most of Boston’s other ropewalks underwent a similar takeover and failure with National Cordage, only two private walks – Pearson and Plymouth Cordage – survived past 1895. Plymouth Cordage continued to operate until 1970, serving as America’s premier fabricator of rope for much of that period.
Between 1834 and 1837 Alexander Parris designed and built the ropewalk at Charlestown Navy Yard. The immense granite structure was the principle manufactory of rope for the US Navy from its completion until 1950, and held a complete set of machines designed by inventor Daniel Treadwell. Along with Plymouth Cordage, this ropewalk was one of the first factories to employ women.
Despite a 1880 fire, The Charlestown Navy Yard Ropewalk operated at or near capacity until 1950, when production was reduced to a minimum. Twenty-five years later, in 1975, the walks were permanently closed. The building retained its machinery for decades, but a fire in 2002 made use as a historical landmark challenging (despite it being the only complete ropewalk in the US). In 2021 the building began undergoing conversion into residential units – with a public exhibit meant to highlight the structures historic significance.
Making Rope at the Charlestown Navy Yard
Allen Smith feeding the breaker machine. Breaking is the first step in turning hemp into cordage. Breaking removes the bark and core of the stalk, leaving behind fibers. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
Center section of the breaker machine showing comb-like teeth that separate the hemp. The inventor got the idea from watching his wife comb her hair. This portion of the Charlestown Walk's breaker machine had been a separate process called hackling until the industrial revolution. The hacklers removed the remaining pollutants within the fiber, which was wound into skeins. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
Thomas Reynolds tending the ends of the coarse spreader machine. The prepared fibers seen here may have undergone as many as 3 hecklings of increasing fineness. The shorter fibers that failed to make it through the machine, called tow, were mixed with tar to make oakum. Oakum was useful as a caulking for ships. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
John Allen at the finishing machine that prepares for spinning. Here the hemp has been refined to its finest purity, and is ready for spinning into thread. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
T.J. Kaes (with hat) foreman of rope making crew and oldest employee at Navy Yard started at age 15 in 1898 working with his hand spinner, has worked for 41 years. F. B. Christensen - quarter man - also started in 1898, have worked together for all of 41 years except for one month. Spinning turned the refined hemp fiber into yarns that could then be combined into larger ropes. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
Head man, Charles Leary, employed for 39 years in the rope walk - watching the threads passing through the tar trough. After being spun into yarns the hemp passed through the tar troughs. While this process had once been a massive fire hazard, buy the time this photo was taken the tar was heated with hot water pipes, not an open flame. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
James Hickey, 1st class rope maker and his helper, Wm. Whitfield, showing general view of forming machine. The forming machine spun yarns into a strand. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
George Cadigan, Frank Hogan, George Morse, laying the rope as it is about to be twisted into one piece. The strands seen in the bottom right will be twisted using another cart not pictured here, which is capable of spinning the strands. The carts moved to accommodate the forming of the rope, which is shorter than its constituent strands. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
John Driscoll, running the rope laying machine. This end of the walk mechanism spins the rope's strands, allowing them to be merged into a single unit. In pre-industrial ropewalks this portion would have been stationary. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
Finished cordage, ready to be used by the US Navy. (Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)
Article by Sebastian Belfanti
Source: Ropewalks of the West End and Beyond, Lucia and Burgess, The West End Museum; Boston Public Library Leventhal Collection