Middle Brewster Island

Archway on Middle Brewster.

NPS Photo/R. Vincent

Quick Facts

Location:

Boston Harbor

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation

Nestled between Great Brewster and Outer Brewster is Middle Brewster Island. Characterized by its rocky outcroppings, the 13.6-acre island has an elevation of 58 feet above sea level. The island also boasts a small freshwater marsh. The channel between Middle Brewster and Great Brewster is referred to as "the flying place," because of the intense wave action during storms.  

Elder Brewster first claimed the island in 1621. After his death in 1641, the town of Hull acquired the island. After sixty years, the town sold the island to private owners in 1700. The Loring's of Hull purchased the island in 1719 and referred to the island as "Bridges Island" because the island appeared to span between the Great and Outer Brewster Islands. Then in 1759, owner John Gould called the island "Gould Island."¹

In the 1840s a fishing community lived on Middle Brewster. Three fishermen owned the island, and had it divided evenly. The King's Handbook of Boston Harbor describes red-roofed houses that lined the island at this time. In the 1870s, August Russ purchased the island from the fishermen, and built a summer villa on the southern cliff. Although the fishing community retained a small portion of land, Russ leased the rest and fostered a summer community on the island. The summer community used the fishermen's houses and turned them into summer cottages. Actress Julia Arthur, and her husband, businessman, Benjamin P. Cheney, had a summer home on the island before they built their home on Calf Island in 1902. Other notable guests of Middle Brewster Island included William Halsall, a marine painter who is said to have frequented the island, even in bad weather. Notman, a photographer, is also said to have spent two seasons on the island. From research, this "Notman" was likely either the famed Canadian photographer William Notman or his younger brother John Sloan Notman, who owned a studio in Boston.  

By the 1880s, only one fisherman remained on the island.²

In 1892, Melvin O. Adams purchased the island and built a small villa, along with an arch and a bell. Adams' arch is one of the structures still visible on the island, although ruins can be seen.³ By 1900 the island sold again, this time to Richard S. Whitney. Whitney built a home on the western part of the island.

Middle Brewster Island joined Boston Harbor Islands State Park in the 1970s, and the island today serves as a nesting site for shorebirds, including gulls, and cormorants.

Learn More...

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

---

Footnotes

1. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park, Volume 2: Existing Conditions, 141-150.
2. M F Sweetster, 1882. King’s Handbook of Boston Harbor (Cambridge: Moses King), 220-221; Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park, Volume 1: Historical Overview, 26, 188.
3. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Cultural Landscape Report: Boston Harbor Islands National & State Park, Volume 2: Existing Conditions, 141-150.