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Arts & Entertainment

Walking Tour: "Ropewalks of the West End"

In 17th and 18th century Boston, long lots—eventually covered by equally long buildings—sprang up for the manufacture of rope and cordage to supply the booming shipping trade. The smell and the threat of fire from the tar vats that cured the hemp rope ensured that this industry was soon relegated to the least developed parts of the city: the West End and Beacon Hill.


The tour will explore the locales of the colonial and federal cordage industry in Boston staring with the James Barton ropewalk near the West End Museum and the ropewalks near MGH which supplied the U.S.S. Constitution with all her lines. We will then explore the ropewalks of Beacon Hill and the Boston Common and then progress to Post Office Square from whose ropewalks workers left to join the mob at the Boston Massacre and end in the environs of the former Fort Hill where John Harrison established the first ropewalk in Boston in 1642.


Tom Burgess, Curator of the “Ropewalks of the West End and Beyond” exhibit, will lead the tour.

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