Better Know an Island is a Curbed Boston Outdoors Week 2014 special feature detailing the many islands accessible from our mainland. Let's hit one of the biggest spits out there!
Peddocks Island at high tide is 184 acres and at low tide 288. Such girth gives it more shoreline than any of its fellow Boston Harbor islands. There's also a freshwater marsh on Peddocks' southern end, and several campsites throughout amid a wide array of tree and plant species. But never mind all the physical features: The island has quite the history.
Peddocks was mostly an agricultural haunt starting in the 1600s. Then, Fort Andrews went up on the island's northern end, and, from 1904 through the end of World War II in 1945, Peddocks was a very real part of the national defense system—namely, harbor defense. Twenty-six structures still remain from the fort, including guardhouses and POW barracks. Oh, and last decade it was a setting for Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Not as interesting.
Ferries are your best bet for getting to Peddocks.
· Website: Peddocks Island [Harbor Islands Partnership]
· Our Better Know an Island archive [Curbed Boston]
· Our Outdoors Week 2014 archive [Curbed Boston]