At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the US Navy established six naval shipyards to build, repair, and outfit the fleet. From the “original six”—Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Washington—the public shipyard system would expand over the next 150 years, peaking at 11 in 1943. Today, only four Naval Shipyards still exist, but as the other sites have been decommissioned over the past five decades, they have been repurposed as industrial parks, residential neighborhoods, container ports, and more. This virtual program will examine the history of these yards’ closure, the challenges and successes of their repurposing, and the future of the country’s active public shipyards.
- Military Shipbuilding Google Map
- Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Map
- Arthur Andersen Shipbuilding Report (1962)
- “Navy Needs More Dry Docks for Repairs” (USNI News, Mar 21, 2019)
- “U.S. Coast Guard Announces A New Superbase In Charleston, South Carolina” (Forbes, Feb 20, 2020)
- Turning Bases Into Great Places: New Life for Closed Military Facilities (EPA)
- Nathan Kensinger Photography: The San Francisco Naval Shipyard
- Hunters Point Shipyard Artists
