Noddle's Island

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Noddle's Island is now part of Logan Airport since the water surrounding it was filled during World War II.

Noddle's Island is one of Boston Harbor Islands off East Boston, Massachusetts. In the 1940s the strait separating Noddle's Island from East Boston was filled, thereby connecting the island to Logan International Airport on the mainland.


For over three hundred years, the island was known as Noddle's Island, for William Noddle, who was probably sent out by John Brereton, and settled upon it in the 1620s, before Boston was established by the Puritans. The island was used for grazing livestock and there was a fortified structure on the island. Mr. Noddle, a resident of Salem, died in 1632 when his canoe overturned on the South River, according to the journal of John Winthrop.[1] Sometime in the late 1620s or early 1630s, Rev. Samuel Maverick, an Anglican clergyman, became the owner of the island through his wife's inheritance from her deceased first husband, David Thompson, who had been part of the Sir Ferdinando Gorges expedition in the 1620s. The First Baptist Church of Boston met secretly on the island in the 17th century to avoid persecution by the Puritan state. During the American Revolutionary War "on this same island was fought the second battle of the Revolution [also known as the Battle of Chelsea Creek ], and the first in which the American artillery was used."[2] After the British left Boston harbor, the island was used as a hospital for the French Fleet in 1780 who dubbed it ""L'ile de France'" and buried numerous troops on the island. After this the island was heavily fortified by the Bostonians.

During World War II, expansion of Logan Airport led to the water around Noddle's Island being filled, connecting it to the mainland.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ King's Handbook of Boston by M. F. Sweetser Cambridge, Mass., Moses King, Publisher - Harvard Square, 1878.[1]

External links[edit]