Outer Brewster Island

Outer Brewster Island

NPS Photo | Rachel Vincent

Quick Facts

Location:

Boston Harbor

MANAGED BY:

Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation

Sometimes referred to as an "outward island," Outer Brewster sits ten miles from Downtown Boston. Its nearly twenty acres of rocky shoreline have been left relatively untouched due to its distance from the mainland. Similar to the other Brewster Islands, it is characterized by bed rock covered in soil and a barren landscape. Special features on the island include steep cliffs and a rock formation called "pulpit's rock."  

First granted to John Leverett in 1652, the island changed hands many times. Other islands in the harbor housed large communities, but Outer Brewster saw few inhabitants at once. In 1843, only two or three people lived on the island, along with six cattle and fifty sheep. The owner at the time, Arthur W. Austin also quarried granite. The same granite, later faced a building in Charlestown and paved several streets in Boston.  

The Federal Government purchased the island in 1913 for $2,500 and constructed Battery Jewell in 1941 to bolster defenses in the outer harbor. Battery Jewell, housed 125 soldiers, included 6-inch radar guns, searchlights, bunkers, and equipment to operate the underwater mining operation (in conjunction with Fort Warren and Fort Dawes). Deactivated in 1946, the island was sold as surplus and remained privately owned until acquired by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to become part of the Boston Harbor Islands State Park.¹ 

Today, the ruins of Battery Jewell remain, and coastal waterbirds nest and sometimes even harbor seals rest on the rocks of Outer Brewster Island.² 

Learn More...

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

---

Footnotes  

1. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park, Volume 2: Existing Conditions (Boston: National Park Service, 2017), 171-173; Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park, Volume 1: Historical Overview (Boston: National Park Service, 2017), 30, 90.
2. "Island Facts: Outer Brewster Island," Boston Harbor Islands, Accessed March 29 2023, https://www.nps.gov/boha/learn/historyculture/facts-oubr.htm.