Chelsea Naval Magazine

The three buildings of the Chelsea Naval Magazine

Chelsea Naval Magazine, a set of three buildings (Building 2, Building 3, and the Middle Building) at the foot of Admiral's Hill in Chelsea, Massachusetts, was built in the early 19th century to handle ordnance for the United States Navy. These buildings are on the grounds of what was once the U.S. Naval Hospital for Boston and is now a National Register historic district. The land on which the Chelsea Naval Magazine sits was conveyed to the Bureau of Ordnance by the Hospital in 1835 and transferred back to the Hospital in 1931^[1].

Building 2

The largest building, officially known as Building 2, was designed to securely store explosives and ordnance and was not intended for human occupancy. Building 2 is a rectangular one-story structure, measuring 73 x 142 feet, with exterior walls made of monolithic hammer dressed granite blocks. The roof is hipped, made of iron and timber, boarded over and covered with slate tiles. The windows are small as they were originally used for ventilation rather than light.

Building 2 is actually a building within a building - an 1830s structure, without its original roof, encased within an 1860s structure which added the current exterior walls and a new roof. The architect and engineer Alexander Parris designed the inside structure. The floor is concrete and the interior is raw masonry, unpainted and unfinished. The ceilings are made of brick and include vaults which were designed to contain fire and force explosions upward rather than outward^[2].

In 2000, major interior renovations were performed on Building 2 so it could be used as office space. Additional renovations were made in 2009 to facilitate managed office suites leased to a variety of companies. Current tenants of Building 2 include Admiral's Hill Office Suites, the company which manages Building 2, and Arsenal Consulting, a high-technology litigation consulting firm specializing in computer forensics.

Building 3

Building 3

Information regarding Building 3 is scarce. Similar to Building 2, it was built in the 1830s with brick walls and a brick vaulted ceiling. Building 3 is also similar to Building 2 in style, construction, and materials.

Building 3 is currently occupied by Elite Protective Services.

Middle Building

The Middle Building

The Middle Building, the smallest of the three, was built in the 1830s and is similar to Buildings 2 and 3 in style, construction, and materials.

References

1. ^ "History of Building". Admiral's Hill Office Suites. 2009-01-12. http://www.admiralshilloffices.com/docs/historyofbuilding.pdf. 
2. ^ "Naval Hospital Boston Historic District". National Park Service. 2009-01-12. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/nav.htm. 

External links

• Admiral's Hill Office Suites
• Arsenal Consulting