Green Island, Boston

Green Island is a popular nesting location.

NPS Photo/ R. Vincent

Quick Facts

Location:

Outer Harbor of Boston Harbor

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation

Green Island sits 9.5 miles away from Long Wharf in the outer harbor. It is a barren island that is 1.8 acres with rocky outcrops and minimal vegetation. The island is currently owned by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.¹  Like other islands in the harbor, Indigenous people accessed the island seasonally for thousands of years before European colonization.

In the 1600s, this island was one of the many islands in the outer harbor claimed by Elder William Brewster, a preacher and a teacher in the Plymouth Colony. After his death, the town of Hull acquired the island. In the 1680s, the island became named "Green Island," after Joseph Green, a merchant who owned the island. Throughout the 1800s, various fishermen and lobstermen occupied Green Island. This included Samuel Choate, who occupied Green Island in 1845 and built a crude hut out of driftwood. He lived on the island subsisting mainly on fish and mussels until his death in 1865.² 

Since Choate’s death, Green Island has remained mostly uninhabited by people. Green Island joined the Boston Harbor Islands State Park in the 1970s and is currently used to support a large population of nesting birds. Visitation to this island is discouraged during nesting season.³ 

Learn More...

Island Facts: Green Island - Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

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Footnotes: 

1. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park, Volume 2: Existing Conditions, (Boston: National Park Service, 2017), 85-86; National Park Service Boston Harbor Islands, "Green Island Facts," date last modified November 25, 2022.
2. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report Volume 2: Existing Conditions, 85-86; Moses Foster Sweetser, King’s Handbook of Boston Harbor (Cambridge, MA: Moses King, 1883), 254.
3. National Park Service Boston Harbor Islands, "Green Island Facts"; Edward Snow, The Islands of Boston Harbor (Carlisle, MA: Commonwealth Editions, 2002), 210-211.