Boston's Ropewalks

A digital reframing of “Ropewalks of the West End and Beyond”, an 2012 exhibit designed and written by Duane Lucia and Tom Burgess.

From it’s earliest days until the late 19th century, Boston’s economy was predominantly a maritime affair, but when the puritan’s arrived in 1630, they did so with a different plan – to recreate the economic model of the Spanish imperial holdings in the Americas. The Puritans intended to mine, process and export the precious metals of New England to Europe. That plan hit a snag, however, when there were no precious metals to be found.

For a little more than a decade, the early Bostonians worked to find an alternative to mining. Eventually one presented itself, the carrying trade, in which Boston’s embryonic merchant elite began a series of disorganized enterprises that would develop into the infamous Triangle Trade, as well as the China Trade and many lesser-know trade routes.

From that point on, shipping was the key to economic success in Boston, and since shipping required ships, naval supplies – wood, cordage, caulking, and the like – became critical to the success of the city.

Until 1640, the Massachusetts Bay Colony relied on Great Britain to supply the majority of its finished goods. Any rope or twine that was produced in the colony had to be made with locally grown flax or hemp, and was most likely produced by families for their own use with any excess being sold locally.

In 1638 the Boston area’s first “ropefields” were established in Charlestown. “Rope-maker’s Lane” ran along the town’s colonial waterfront, which is now the cite of City Square and Lynde Street. Soon Boston would have it’s own ropemakers and shipbuilders.

By 1642 shipping and its constituent industries were expanding significantly in Boston. The English Civil War reduced immigration and support from the mother country and limited imperial oversight. As a result, colonists were able to establish their own trade routes to other colonies, and even foreign nations, for the first time. These gains were further solidified during Queen Anne’s War in 1709, confirming Boston as a leading port in Colonial America.

The ropemaking industry continued to expand between the 1730’s and the Revolutionary War. By 1743 two additional ropewalks were added to William Prince’s edited version of the Bonner Map, and later maps show seven operating in the area by 1790.

In 1770, Boston’s ropewalks became one of the many places where resistance to the Crown developed into a fledgling revolution. Scuffles broke out between British soldiers and workers at the Atkinson Street ropewalks. Soon after, ropewalk workers took center stage in the Boston Massacre. Samuel Grey and Crispus Attucks were both ropewalk workers killed in the Massacre, and other workers including Jeffery Richardson and John Gray also participated in the affair.

The practice of tarring and feathering provided another intersection between the ropewalks and the revolution. The tar used in these mob attacks, which could leave severe burns that occasionally led to death, came from the city’s ropewalks. The feathers were commonly taken from household pillows, sometimes ones stolen from the afflicted person’s home.

Despite numerous challenges posed by conflicts with France and Great Britain, Boston remained a major port into the latter half of the 19th century. As it’s ships circled the globe, the city’s ropemakers continued to supply the cordage required for naval vessels.

Unfortunately for Bostonians, ropemaking came with some serious drawbacks. The ropemaking process involved keeping hot tar – and corollary open flames – in the presence of numerous airborne hemp fibers. These fibers were constantly at risk of igniting, as they did at one of the Pearl Street walks on July 30, 1794. After the fire, six of the seven Pearl Street ropewalks relocated to filled land at the eastern end of the Boston Common on what is now the Public Gardens. The seventh, owned by John and Samuel Gray, moved to Charlestown. Two years later a ropewalk on the Charles owned by MacNeills burned, and that business moved to Charlestown as well.

Fires continued to threaten Boston’s ropemaking industry throughout their history, and are recorded burning ropewalks at least three times between 1795 and 1824 alone.

Despite the fires, in 1798 Boston could claim more than a dozen ropewalks, including 5 on Charles Street (Public Garden), 3-5 on Beacon Hill and another 3 on Allen Street. The Ridgeway Lane ropewalk seems to have survived to the end of the century as well, along with one on South Russell Street.

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)