Explore the Navy Yard

Explore the Navy Yard. USS Constitution Museum. , Building 10 , Pitch House and Oakum Loft , Black smoke billowed from Building 10 when it first opened in 1853. There, pine tree sap was boiled down into the tar and pitch that kept wooden ships like USS Constitution watertight. The advent of steel hulls soon ended that need, and over the years the building later served as a paint shop, radio station, laundry, and sonar repair shop. In 1974, it became the first home of the USS Constitution Museum, and today it is the home to a counter-service restaurant., Building 22 , Pump House , Building 22, now the home of the USS Constitution Museum, once housed the giant steam pumps that were used to drain Dry Dock 1 when USS Constitution first entered for repairs in 1833. The pumps were later relocated, but visitors entering the Museum's lobby walk directly over the spot where remnants of the cisterns for the old steam pumps are located in the building's basement., Building 24 , The skilled shipwrights and riggers who maintain USS Constitution work year-round in Building 24. Originally opened in 1849 as the "Joiners Shop, Carpenters Work Shop, and Rigging Loft." Building 24 is where miles of intricate rigging are assembled and large timbers are molded into the pieces needed for ship repairs., Commandant's House , The Commandant's House is the oldest building in the Navy Yard and the most elegant. Designed for formal entertaining and family life, the house and its gardens formed a refuge from the industrial bustle of the surrounding Navy Yard. USS Constitution's first captain, Samuel Nicholson, and his family moved into the brand new home in the summer of 1805, when Nicholson became the first commandant of the Yard., Cranes and Tracks , Two massive portal cranes on railroad tracks still loom over the Navy Yard. These are all that remain of 13 moveable cranes that were once used to help assemble and repair warships in the Navy's dry docks. First installed in 1905, the cranes were used to remove and install USS Constitution's masts during her renovations throughout the 1900s., Dry Dock 1 , When USS Constitution needs repairs below the water, the Navy's oldest ship goes into one of the Navy's oldest dry docks. USS Constitution was Dry Dock 1's fist occupant after it opened in 1833, and was most recently there from 2015 to 2017. Although enlarged several times to accommodate bigger ships, Dry Dock 1 is still kept drained and operable today for use by USS Constitution and USS Cassin Young., Pier 1 , View of Hartt's Shipyard Site , The birthplace of USS Constitution can be seen just across the harbor from the end of Pier 1. Constitution was built and launched at Hartt's Shipyard in Boston's North End in the 1970s. Today, the site is home to the white-hulled cutters and patrol boats of U.S. Coast Guard Base Boston.