This Boston warehouse once handled 75% of U.S. wool — now it hosts New England’s biggest art walk

Fort Point’s Evolution from Wool Hub to Artists’ Haven

Fort Point once ruled America’s wool trade from its brick warehouses along Boston Harbor.

Between 1836 and 1882, the Boston Wharf Company built 55 acres of industrial space that soon handled up to 75% of all U.S. wool. But by mid-century, the wool trade crashed, leaving empty buildings behind.

Then in 1976, sculptor Christopher Sproat found cheap studio space at 34 Farnsworth Street after losing his workspace to fire. More artists soon joined him.

Four years later, these pioneers held Boston’s first-ever Open Studios, inviting the public inside. They later formed the Fort Point Arts Community and bought their own building for under a million dollars.

Today, this historic district showcases how artists can transform forgotten spaces into vibrant cultural landmarks worth exploring.

Boston Wharf Company Turned Marshlands into a Commercial Hub

The Boston Wharf Company started in 1836 with big plans for the waterfront.

They spent almost 50 years filling tidal marshes with dirt from Nooks Hill and leftover rubble from the Great Boston Fire of 1872.

Their work created 55 acres of new land along Fort Point Channel with a neat grid of streets. The company built sturdy warehouses first used for storing sugar and molasses.

Their own architects designed all buildings, giving the area its uniform brick look. They named streets after company bigwigs and major customers: Farnsworth, Melcher, Sleeper, and Stillings.

Summer Street Became the Heart of Wool Business

In the 1890s, the Boston Wharf Company built huge brick warehouses along Summer Street just for wool merchants. Wool dealers moved from Dewey Square across the channel to these new buildings made for them.

Summer Street quickly became the center of wool dealing, where merchants made deals and stored goods. The buildings had high ceilings, strong floors, and lots of natural light.

Most of these wool warehouses came from company architects Morton D. Safford and Howard B. Prescott.

Fort Point Handled Most of America’s Wool by the 1930s

Fort Point grew into a wool powerhouse by the 1930s, handling between 60 to 75 percent of all wool grown in the United States. Boston became the nation’s wool trade center, where workers stored, sorted, and shipped wool.

The wool came by train from western states like Oregon, Washington, and California, where sheep ranching had moved. Fort Point’s great rail connections made it easy to send wool to New England textile mills inland.

Thousands of workers kept busy moving wool through dozens of warehouses.

Synthetic Fibers and Southern Competition Killed the Wool Trade

After 1950, the wool trade left Fort Point as several money problems hit at once. New England textile mills closed or moved south looking for cheaper workers.

New fake fibers like nylon and polyester started replacing wool in many products. Foreign wool sellers offered lower prices than American farmers could match.

As business dried up, the wool companies moved out, leaving behind massive empty warehouses. The once-busy buildings now stood quiet in the changing economy.

A Suspicious Fire Forced Artists to Find New Workspaces

On February 1, 1976, someone set fire to the Plante Shoe Factory in Jamaica Plain. The fire knocked out the sprinklers and started in several places at once around 9:28 at night.

The five-story factory housed small businesses, art studios, and some illegal living spaces since the 1950s. Almost every fire truck in Boston came to fight the five-alarm blaze that burned until morning.

Artists like sculptor Christopher Sproat lost their studios in the fire and needed to find new places to work fast.

An Artist Crossed the Channel and Found a Goldmine

In March 1976, Christopher Sproat walked across Fort Point Channel looking for cheap studio space. He found solid brick buildings still owned by the Boston Wharf Company sitting completely empty.

Sproat and fellow artist Domingo Barreres rented the entire fifth floor of 34 Farnsworth Street. They told other artists about the space with tall ceilings, strong floors, and beautiful natural light.

The buildings first made for storing wool turned out to be perfect for artists working with heavy materials and creating large pieces.

A Property Manager Saw Value in Renting to Creatives

More artists without studios followed Sproat to Fort Point hunting for affordable workspace. Boston Wharf Company manager Bob Kenney welcomed them, writing cheap leases that struggling artists could afford.

The Boston Wharf Company now belonged to the British Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company. Artists moved into buildings along Farnsworth, Congress, and Stillings Streets all the way down to lower A Street.

By 1978, about 100 artists worked in Fort Point studios, forming a community in the once-empty district.

Artists Opened Their Doors to the Public in a First-of-its-Kind Event

In May 1980, Fort Point artists held the first Open Studios event in Boston. They invited the public into their workspaces, letting visitors see where and how art gets made.

The event gave people a chance to meet working artists, watch works in progress, and buy art directly from creators. Bostonians loved exploring the industrial district and seeing inside the old wool warehouses.

People wanted to connect with artists in their actual working spaces rather than just seeing finished pieces in galleries.

Creative People Banded Together to Protect Their Future

By the end of 1980, artists formed the Fort Point Arts Community as a nonprofit group. FPAC spoke for artists and helped people find studio space in the district.

The artists knew the buildings could be sold anytime, pushing them out just like what happened in New York’s SoHo. In 1978, they started planning how to buy buildings for permanent affordable artist housing.

The National Endowment for the Arts gave them $22,000 to hire a city planner who could help them find the right building to buy.

Thirty-Six Artists Bought Their Own Building on A Street

In August 1983, a group of 36 Fort Point artists bought 249 A Street for less than a million dollars. The former Regal Lithograph Company building offered about 70,000 square feet of space.

It became the first limited-equity artists’ cooperative in Massachusetts, creating 35 live-work studios. They put together financing that included a $1,050,000 regular loan and $160,000 low-interest loan from the city.

The artists worked closely with South Boston neighbors and city officials to get special permission for combined living and working spaces.

Fort Point’s Success Story Spread Across the Country

Fort Point Open Studios continued every year, becoming the longest-running open studios program in Boston. Artists created additional cooperative buildings: 300 Summer Street in 1995 and Midway Studios in 2005.

The 249 A Street project showed other cities how artists could create permanent affordable spaces. By the 2000s, over 300 artists lived and worked in Fort Point, making it the largest artist community in New England.

The movement that started in Fort Point inspired open studios programs and artist cooperatives in cities throughout America, changing how creative people secure their futures.

Visiting Fort Point, Massachusetts

Fort Point’s three historic buildings at 249 A Street, 300 Summer Street, and 15 Channel Center Street were once 1890s wool warehouses that artists transformed into studios.

You can explore this creative neighborhood during Fort Point Open Studios on October 17-19, 2025, with free admission Friday 4-7pm and Saturday-Sunday 12-6pm.

The weekend features free workshops, live performances, and hands-on activities.

FPAC Gallery at 300 Summer Street is open weekdays 11am-5pm, and all locations are walking distance from South Station.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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