Button Island

Button Island sits in Hingham Bay.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Boston Harbor

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Town of Hingham

The smallest of the islands in the Hingham Harbor, Button Island is just one acre at high tide. Used seasonally by the Indigenous population prior to European contact, the island likely once had trees that colonists cut down and used for firewood.¹ 

In the 1893 book, The History of Hingham, Thomas T. Bouve described the island as a:

Little heap of rock and gravel, bearing no trees or shrubs and but little grass, is not worth visiting.²

Today, a large oak tree grows on the island. This tree was likely planted shortly after the publishing of Bouve’s book, along with twenty or so other trees that have made their home on the island. Owned by the Town of Hingham, Button Island has no visitor services.³  

Learn More...

Island Facts: Button Island - Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

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Footnotes:

1. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park, Volume 2: Existing Conditions, (Boston: National Park Service, 2017) 21-24.
2. Thomas T. Bouve, The History of the Town of Hingham (Hingham, MA: Town of Hingham, 1893), 178.
3. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report, Volume 2: Existing Conditions, 21-24.