#ropewalks

Ropewalks were a significant part of the ship-building industry in Barton’s day. Barton’s rope walk was held on a lease, so it did not survive forever, but Barton’s Point retained its name for a century. The Point had also been a geographic reference point for the West End: according to historian John Reps, “The area of Boston in which the greatest growth had taken place [in the early eighteenth century]…was the West End, lying between the Mill Pond and Barton’s point on the north and the common on the south.” The relatively undeveloped, yet growing, West Boston made an ideal site for industrial structures such as ropewalks.

James and his wife, Margaret Barton, had a son, John Barton, in 1686. He also owned a ropewalk in the South End, and lived until his death in 1729 at a house on Ann Street, in today’s North End. When the Leverett estate was again divided up in 1725, Barton was listed as a commercial tenant of the land known as Barton’s Point.

Barton Street, constructed sometime before 1824, was named for James Barton by the Barton Point Association. The street was removed during the urban renewal programs of the 1950’s, but markers remain on Martha Road to designate it’s historic location.

Article by Sebastian Belfanti, edited by Adam Tomasi