Wives, Widows, Wharf-owners: Female Property Ownership on Boston's Waterfront, 1790-1820

This paper situates female waterfront property ownership within the context of corporate-sponsored building projects in early-national Boston. In 1798 nearly 100 women owned wharves, stores, and houses along the docks. Over the next two decades, women’s presence dropped significantly along the harbor and Charles River in areas slated for corporate “improvement.” Using ownership and architectural data from tax assessments along with city directories and maps pinpointing the location of female property owners in relation to corporate projects, I consider how these projects influenced women’s lives and financial circumstances and ask why corporations deemed female presence along the waterfront incongruous with Boston’s commercial future. Examining the waterfront property holdings of women across the class spectrum alongside improvement initiatives sponsored by the Proprietors of India Wharf, the Proprietors of Long Wharf, and the Mill Dam Corporation, I argue these corporate projects proved highly contentious as women saw their homes, businesses, and livelihoods eclipsed by the forces of improvement.