Fort Winthrop

Sketch of Fort Winthrop on Governor's Island

"Boston Illustrated," edited by Edwin Monroe Bacon, 1886.

Quick Facts

Location:

Governors Island, now Boston Logan Airport

Significance:

Part of Boston Harbor Defense System

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

One of the older forts in Boston Harbor, Fort Winthrop defended Governors Island from 1808 until its abandonment in 1905.

In 1808, the federal government purchased seven acres of land on Governors Island from the Winthrop family, the island’s owners since 1632. On the highest point of the island, the US Army constructed a fort, which was initially named Fort Warren, after Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren. The Army completed work on the Fort in 1812, just in time for the War of 1812, though the Fort saw no action during that conflict. The original 1812 fort consisted of a Demi-Lune, several gun batteries along the southern face, and earthwork defenses along a stretch of the island’s coast.

In 1833, the Army broke ground on a larger, more sophisticated fort on Georges Island which was to be named Fort Warren. This required the present fort on Governors Island to be renamed Fort Winthrop, in honor of the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony John Winthrop. The Army began renovations on Fort Winthrop in 1846, buying the rest of Governors Island from the Winthrop family. This purchase marked the beginning of 30 years of renovations and improvements conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers from 1846 to 1875, costing the federal government an estimated $700,000. The Fort’s northern, southern, and eastern batteries were completed in 1860, and over the next year they were enlarged and extended, just in time for the beginning of the Civil War in 1860.

Fort Winthrop experienced little activity during the war compared with the other Boston Harbor Island forts, and operated under a skeleton garrison. From 1865 until 1875, the Fort’s ten-inch guns were gradually replaced by larger fifteen-inch Rodman guns. Despite years of renovations, the Fort saw little use as a defensive installation for the rest of the century. From 1875 on, the US Army placed Fort Winthrop on caretaker status, with only one Ordnance Sergeant living there to look after and maintain the Fort. From 1880 to 1901, a succession of seven sergeants lived at Fort Winthrop, including a Black Jamaican-born soldier, Sergeant Benjamin.¹

On September 7, 1902, disaster struck Fort Winthrop. Though the Fort’s caretaker, Sergeant Shaw, did his best to keep trespassers away from the Fort, two fishermen visiting Governors Island found their way to the Fort’s powder magazine. Some time later, all 18,000 pounds of gunpowder beneath the Fort ignited. The explosion killed the two fishermen, expelled debris from Fort Winthrop all over Governors and Castle Islands, and shattered windowpanes along the North Shore, from Lynn to Winthrop. No one else was injured, an outcome local residents considered miraculous. The subsequent investigation determined that the fishermen had accidentally set off the gunpowder, but investigators could not determine exactly how. Although theories persist, there is no conclusive evidence one way or another.

Following the explosion, the Army largely abandoned the destroyed remains of Fort Winthrop and relieved the last caretaker in 1905. Governors Island lay neglected for the next several decades, during which time there were several failed construction projects and a brief period of ownership by the US Navy. 

During the 1940s and 1950s, the construction of Boston Logan International Airport saw extensive land reclamation in the harbor. Governors Island, along with Noddle's and Apple Islands, ceased to exist as the water around it was filled in with artificial land. Today, Governors Island and Fort Winthrop lie beneath runway 14/32 in the southern part of the airport.

Contributed by: Raphael Pierson-Sante, SCA Historic Preservation Corps Crew Member

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Footnote:

1. The caretakers’ given names are unknown.

Sources:

Snow, Edward Rowe, The Islands of Boston Harbor: Their History and Romance, 1626-1935, The Andover Press, 1935.

Commins, Mabel P., "Fort Winthrop: Its Past and Present History", The Bostonian, Vol. II, August 1895, pp. 491-501.