New visitor center opens at Charlestown Navy Yard

(David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

Inside the new visitor center.

By Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondent

With the USS Constitution as a backdrop, officials announced the opening of a new Charlestown Navy Yard Visitor Center today with stories of the yard's history, Fourth of July fanfare, and a crowd that numbered more than 100.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino praised the yard's importance as a source of jobs for the city and a source of supplies for a country at war.

"This is a place where everyone worked," Menino said before he helped cut the ribbon outside the center. "Those workers helped prepare our country for war. ... There's so much to do, so much to learn, right here at our navy yard."

The exhibition space is a large room with light wood floors and old photographs blown up to mural size that depict naval officers standing guard, another posted in front of a giant American flag, and cannons lined up and down a ship deck. The pictures and displays are divided into 19th and 20th century sections; the yard dates back to 1800 and was active until 1974.

The yard is one of the six original US Navy shipyards. More than one million people tour it each year, said Michael Reynolds, deputy regional director for the northeast region of the National Park Service.

The navy yard will be the site of even more activity Friday, when Vice President Dick Cheney will attend a Fourth of July military reenlistment ceremony aboard the Constitution, the world's oldest warship still in commission.

• Comment
• Permalink
• Email