Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

The Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Reserve Fleet in Philadelphia in 1955
Type	Shipyard
Site information
Controlled by	United States Navy
Site history
Built	1917 (League Island Facility)
In use	1801–1995
Battles/wars
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location	S. Broad St. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates
Area	1,200 acres (490 ha)
Built	1876
Architect	Robert E. Peary; Karcher & Smith
Architectural style	Modern Movement, Late Victorian
NRHP Reference #	99001579
Added to NRHP	December 22, 1999
Commandant's Quarters
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Location	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Built	1874
Architect	US Department of the Navy
Architectural style	Italian Villa
NRHP Reference #	76001661
Added to NRHP	03 June 1976

The Navy Yard, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Naval Business Center, was an important naval shipyard of the United States for over a century. It is now a large industrial park that includes a commercial shipyard, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard.

Philadelphia's original navy yard, begun in 1776 on Front Street in what is now Center City, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The new, much larger yard grew up around facilities begun in 1871 on League Island at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.

The United States Navy ended most of its activities there in the 1990s, and in 2000, the city of Philadelphia took over and began to redevelop the land. The Navy still has a Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility and a few engineering activities at the site.

History

Naval use

The "League Island Crane" with Clemson-class destroyer USS Lamson in the foreground.

The yard has its origins in a shipyard on Philadelphia's Front Street on the Delaware River that was founded in 1776 and became an official United States Navy site in 1801. After the advent of ironclad warships made the site obsolete, new facilities were built in 1871 on League Island at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.

The Naval Aircraft Factory was established at the League Island site in 1917. Just after World War I, a 350-ton capacity hammerhead crane was ordered for the yard. Manufactured in 1919 by the McMyler-Interstate Company in Bedford, Ohio, the crane was called the League Island Crane by its builder. Weighing 3,500 tons, the crane was shipped to the yard in sections, and it was the world's largest crane at the time. The "League Island Crane" was for many years the Navy's largest crane.

Mustin Field opened at the Naval Aircraft Factory in 1926 and operated until 1963.

Its greatest period came in World War II, when the yard employed 40,000 people who built 53 ships and repaired 574. During this period, the yard built the famed battleship New Jersey and its 45,000-ton sister ship, Wisconsin. In the Naval Laboratory Philip Abelson developed the liquid thermal diffusion technique for separating U-235 for the Manhattan Project.

After the war, the workforce dropped to 12,000, and in the 1960s, new ships began to be contracted out to private companies. The yard built its last new ship, the command ship Blue Ridge, in 1970.

Guns from battleships being scrapped in Philadelphia Navy Yardin December 1923. USS South Carolina being dismantled in the background.

The yard's closure was originally recommended in 1991 by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, as a result of foreign competition and reduced needs due to the end of the Cold War. The planned closing was unsuccessfully litigated to the US Supreme Court in Dalton v. Specter. Although local politicians tried to keep the yard open, it finally closed in 1995 with a loss of 7,000 jobs. Senator Arlen Specter charged that the Department of Defense did not disclose the official report on the closing. This resulted in a controversy that led to further legal disputes, to no avail. Since its transfer from the government, the west end of property has been leased to Aker Kværner, a tanker and commercial shipbuilding firm.

In the 1990s, the U.S. Navy reduced its activities there, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995, by decision of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC).

Post-naval use

The City of Philadelphia became the landlord and owner of The Navy Yard in March 2000, when the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID) took title to roughly 1,000 acres from The Navy. Currently, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) manages the planning, operation, and development of The Navy Yard on behalf of PAID and the City of Philadelphia. A comprehensive master plan was developed in 2004 to turn the former industrial yard to a vibrant, mixed-use campus.

As of 2010, navy activities there include Naval Support Activity Philadelphia, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Ship Systems Engineering Station, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic Public Works Department Pennsylvania (NAVFAC MIDLANT PWD PA) and the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), which stores decommissioned and mothballed warships and auxiliary naval vessels.

The Navy Yard is home to 120 companies with 10,000 employees, as the campus continues to expand and develop. Clothing manufacturer Urban Outfitters consolidated its Philadelphia headquarters on the site, while Tasty Baking Company, makers of Tastykakes, has moved their bakery to the 26th Street side of The Yard. Other companies there include Iroko Pharmaceuticals, Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Rhoads Industries, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), Energy Efficient Buildings Hub (EEB Hub), RevZilla.com, and Mark Group, Inc.

In April 2013, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline opened a 205,000-square-foot building in The Navy Yard's Corporate Center.

The memorial to the Four Chaplains also sits on the grounds.

The Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia hosts the annual Philadelphia Base Ball Fair & Exhibition on the Navy Yard Marine Parade Grounds.

Notable ships

Aerial view NAMC Philadelphia, Mustin Field, and the shipyard in the mid-1940s

• New Jersey
• Wisconsin: Last keel laid for a completed battleship of the United States Navy, 25 January 1941
• The final ships built were LST-1179, LST-1180 and LST-1181 starting in 1969 and completed in early 1971.

See also

• League Island
• Commandant's Quarters (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Marine Barracks (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

External links

• Official website
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-387, "Naval Base Philadelphia-Philadelphia Naval Shipyard"