If you find yourself in Boston, and happen to be in the Charlestown neighborhood, take a few minutes to walk through the Charlestown Navy Yard. Not only is the Navy yard a wonderful place to visit, but there’s also a monster lurking behind building 114.

Building 114 was built between 1901 and 1903 as the Navy yard’s sawmill, wooden boat shop, and spar and mast shop.  Inside building 114 the Navy yard built wooden boats used as motor launches to move crew and material from ship to shore, and other small craft. They also fabricated the many wooden parts needed around the yard such as cribbing and blocking for the steel-hulled ships being built down the street in the dry docks.

At the heart of this shop was the oversize bandsaw mill that now lurks behind the building. Standing well over 20 ft. tall this saw certainly makes an impression.  The wheels are 8 ft. in diameter and were designed to carry a 12-in.-wide blade that was easily 50 ft. long. The saw is so massive that it was installed over an 11-ft.-deep pit that housed the lower wheel. This bandsaw mill was used to saw lumber needed in the rest of the yard as well as producing the lumber that would then be used in the construction of small wooden boats in the rest of the building.

While the Navy yard has been rebuilt and revitalized in the years since the Navy left in 1974, building 114 was left derelict for many years. Finally, during the building’s restoration into a biomedical research lab, the bandsaw mill was saved from the scrap yard by CBA landscape architects.  They chose to have the mill placed on a plinth outside of the building along Boston’s harbor walk as monument to the history of the building. It now stands sentinel overlooking the Mystic River.

So if you find yourself in Boston take some time to go stand in the shadow of this incredible piece of woodworking and American history.

-Bob Miller is a custom furniture maker and woodworker based in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. In addition to his own line of work, Bob manages The Charlestown Furniture Makers, which is an 18-tenant co-op, solar-powered woodshop located in the Sullivan square area of Charlestown.

Bob also teaches for the continuing education department of The North Bennet Street School, primarily teaching Bowl Turning and The Fundamentals of Fine Woodworking.