Collection: City Wharf records | ArchivesSpace Public Interface

Scope and Contents note

Includes record of City Wharfage, 1829-1832; List of Vessels laying at City Wharf, 1829-1831; and financial journals, 1829-1832 and 1839-1841. City Wharfage volume lists date, name of vessel, list of items on board and charge. Vessels laying at City Wharf volume lists date, name of vessel, place, master, owner or agent, time of leaving, number of days at wharf, and fee.

Dates

Creation: 1829-1832, 1839-1841

Creator

Boston (Mass.). Treasury Department (Organization)

Historical note

The Faneuil Hall Market Committee secured for the city the flats to the east of Faneuil Hall which included fifty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-five feet square of wharf and the right of dockage on threes sides of said proposed wharf. The City Council, despite pressure to sell the rights, decided to hold on to the rights until the flats were filled up. In 1832, the City Council leased the wharf and dock rights for twenty years on an annual rent of ten thousand dollars, on condition that ten substantial brick stores should be built upon them and should revert to the city in fee simple at the end of the lease. In 1852, the wharf, dock rights and stores reverted to the City and were sold.