Fort Duvall

Fort Duvall, 1944

Boston Public Library

Quick Facts

Location:

Spinnaker Island

Significance:

Part of 1900s Boston Harbor Defense System

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

Located on Spinnaker Island, Fort Duvall primarily saw action during World War II. Similar to other forts, it contained heavy artillery for defending Boston Harbor.

The US military acquired the island in 1917 for the construction of the fort. When construction was completed in 1922, Fort Duvall was armed with two large 16-inch gun batteries. From the 1920s to 1930s the fort only had one full-time caretaker, with other military personnel quartered at the nearby Fort Andrews and boated over every day.

In the 1940s, with the outbreak of WWII, Fort Duvall saw extensive development, modernizing the 16-inch guns and expanding the fort’s bunkers and facilities. A causeway was also built between Spinnaker Island and the nearby town of Hull to allow easier access and shipment of equipment. Guards and a ready crew were also permanently stationed on the island, alongside an expanded gun crew who commuted from Fort Revere. As the war drew to a close and the need for heavy artillery on the East Coast waned, Fort Duvall was put on maintenance status, decreasing the amount of crew at the fort.

In the years following WWII, the fort’s guns became outdated and were scrapped. The fort then became a missile tracking station for the nearby Nike Ajax launch site in Weymouth, a ground-to-air missile site. The fort closed in the 1970s and the then-empty space turned into a storage facility for the Hull public works and school departments. In the 1980s the remaining structures of the fort were demolished for the construction of condo buildings, which still stand today.

Contributed by: Greg Bsales, SCA Historic Preservation Corps Crew Member

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Sources

Butler, Gerald W. The Guns of Boston Harbor. Bloomington, IN: 1stBooks, 2001.

Butler, Gerald. The Military History of Boston’s Harbor Islands. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000.

Olmstead Center for Landscape Preservation. Cultural Landscape Report Boston National Harbor Islands National & State Park. Boston, MA: National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, 2017.

"Spinnaker Island." National Park Service. Last updated November 22, 2023.