Long Island

The biggest of Boston Harbor Islands with shoreline that stretches to a mile long. It is closed to the public.

Long Island became an incarceration site for those who overcrowded the internment camp at Deer Island. Many were “Christianized” indigenous peoples whom the colonists feared might join the rebellion known as King Philip’s War (1675-1676) Hundreds perished due to extreme conditions and starvation.

During the Siege of Boston in 1775, about 500 continental soldiers boarded the island from whale-boats and took all the sheep and cattle on the island, along with 17 British prisoners. The following year, continental soldiers occupied Long Island and placed several batteries here and on other islands in Boston Harbor. They destroyed a British cargo vessel carrying military supplies and reinforcements. The captain of the vessel and 36 others died with the ship. All were brought ashore and buried on Long Island.

In the 1800s the Long Island Company planned to build a hotel and summer residencies. Around 1882, the City of Boston evicted a Portuguese fishing village from Long Island, forcing them to move to nearby Peddocks Island. The city then acquired the island’s biggest hotel and turned it into an almshouse which was converted into Camp Wrightman and finally Fort Strong in 1899 during the Civil War. It grew to 8 batteries by 1906 and saw minimal use during World War 1. This fort controlled the northern minefields in the harbor during the beginning of World War 2.

Since the placement of the almshouse in the 1880s, Long Island has served as the home to various social services, including a hospital, nursing school, mental health facility, and homeless shelter. The City of Boston removed the structurally unsound bridge in 2015, ending all programs on the island.

-Source Links-

https://www.nps.gov/places/long-island-boston.htm