Peddocks Island

Fort Andrews was created in 1897 as part of the Coast (later Harbor) Defenses of Boston, Massachusetts. Construction began in 1898 and the fort was substantially complete by 1904. The fort was named after Major General George Leonard Andrews, an engineer and Civil War commander, who assisted in the construction of nearby Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. It occupies the entire northeast end of Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor, and was originally called the Peddocks Island Military Reservation. Once an active Coast Artillery post, it was manned by hundreds of soldiers and bristled with mortars and guns that controlled the southern approaches to Boston and Quincy Bay. The fort also served as a prisoner-of-war camp for Italian prisoners during World War II, who were employed as laborers following the Italian surrender to the Allies in 1943. Today, the fort is abandoned, and is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, as part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Hull Gut is a gut (a narrow, naturally dredged deep-water channel) about half a mile wide and thirty-five feet deep, in Boston Harbor running between Pemberton Point in Hull and the East Head of Peddocks Island. Along with its sister channel, West Gut, which runs between the West Head of Peddocks Island and Hough's Neck in Quincy, Hull Gut forms the southern entrance to the Inner Harbor connecting it to Hingham Bay. To the north the gut intersects with the deep-water shipping lane Nantasket Roads. Strong cross-currents and often heavy traffic make the gut a dangerous waterway. The channel is used by oil tankers and other freighters bound for industries around the Weymouth Fore River in Braintree, Weymouth, and Quincy and, historically, was used by the shipbuilding industry. In 1909 Rosie Pitenhof, a fourteen-year-old girl from Dorchester, was the first known person to successfully swim across the gut, from Peddocks Island to the shore at Pemberton in Hull, and back again at flood tide. Miss Pitenhof was in the water twenty-two minutes; nine minutes crossing and thirteen minutes returning. On July 31, 2022 Hull resident Barbara Lynn Kalb drove her brown pickup truck into the Gut and died several hours later after a dive team performed a large search and rescue effort. The event was widely covered by local news media and press with the investigation determining the death was accidental and there was no foul play. Barbara Kalb's daughter content creator Jamie Leigh Fischer, said she felt the investigation and explanation behind her mother's death "did not make any sense," and has since started her own relying heavily on the use of social media and input from those in the community. On February 11, 2023 she launched a youtube channel, "What Really Happened Mom" to encourage other spectators there that day to speak up, and also act as a resource to document her mother's life. Fischer collected evidence not included in the DA's case including dispatch 911 calls, autopsy reports, live video's from the scene, and other materials. She publicly stated on a South Shore radio show 95.9 WATD that she will not give up until she finds the truth of what happened.

Sheep Island is a small uninhabited island of about 3.2 acres (1.3 ha) (or less) in Hingham Bay, an outer arm of Boston Harbor. It is within the bounds of the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is owned by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, and is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. Sheep Island is an eroded glacial drumlin, long and narrow, the highest elevation being 10 feet (3.0 m). A patch of vegetation grows on the west end, sumac and other grasses, and the shoreline is entirely gravel beach. The island was formerly a good deal larger, about 25 acres (10 ha) in early colonial times, and since then has been steadily eroding to its present size. The island (then called Round Island) was deeded to the town of Weymouth in 1636. In colonial times it was used by the town for grazing sheep. William Chamberlain is the first known owner. In the 19th century people would sometimes camp there, and in the 20th century there was a house and a hunting lodge, belonging to a Mr. Bicknell. No structures remain now. Sheep Island serves as a nesting ground for local birds. People birdwatch there, but the authorities discourage visits during nesting season (all visits are by private boat, as the island is not served by the park's ferry service). There are unimproved trails but no other amenities. Sheep Island has also appeared in maps and publications as Shean Island (1759), Sun Island (1775), Sheaf Island (1865), and Ship Island.

Nut Island is a former island in Boston Harbor, part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island has been connected through a short causeway to the end of Houghs Neck, becoming part of the mainland of Quincy, Massachusetts. There are recreational trails, benches and a fishing pier on the small island, with multiple signs showcasing its history. The only building on the island is a Massachusetts Water Resources Authority sewage treatment plant, which screens out grit and large objects before pumping sewage from the south side of the system to the central processing facility at Deer Island through a 4.8 mile deep-bore tunnel. The Nut Island effect is named after this plant, which experienced management problems in the 1980s.

Hull High School is a public high school located in Hull, Massachusetts, United States. It is located at 180 Main Street at the very edge of town adjacent to the Hull Gut, overlooking Boston Harbor and the Boston skyline. Hull has an approximate enrollment of 380 students in grades 9–12. The school's mascot is the Pirates and the school colors are Royal Blue, and Gold.

Hingham Bay is the easternmost of the three small bays of outer Boston Harbor, part of Massachusetts Bay and forming the western shoreline of the town of Hull and the northern shoreline of Hingham in the United States state of Massachusetts. It lies east of Quincy Bay and is met at the southwest by the mouth of Weymouth Fore River, also forming part of the waterfront of Weymouth. The bay is home to several of the Boston Harbor Islands.

Pemberton Point (formerly known as Windmill Point) is a peninsula in Hull, Massachusetts. It is located at the tip of the Nantasket Peninsula, in Boston Harbor.

Rainsford Island, formerly known Hospital Island, Pest House Island, and Quarantine Island, is a 11-acre (45,000 m2) island in the Boston Harbor, situated between Long Island and Peddocks Island. The island is composed of two drumlins, reaching an elevation of 49 feet (15 m) above sea level. The shoreline is predominantly rocky with a sandy cove in the south side, and a variety of wildflowers abound. Access is by private boat only. Since 1996 it has been part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

The House at 32 Bayview Avenue in Quincy, Massachusetts, is a modest Queen Anne style house built on the shore during Quincy's development of that area as a summer resort area. It was built in the 1880s, sited to take advantage of the views of the Town River to the north. It features relatively modest stylistic details, including varying gable sizes with bargeboard, and a wraparound porch with square posts and some Stick style woodwork.The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area is a national recreation area situated among the islands of Boston Harbor of Boston, Massachusetts. The area is made up of a collection of islands, together with a former island and a peninsula, many of which are open for public recreation and some of which are very small and best suited for wildlife. The area is run by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. It includes the Boston Harbor Islands State Park, managed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Twenty-one of the 34 islands in the area are also included in the Boston Harbor Islands Archeological District. Attractions include hiking trails, beaches, the Civil War-era Fort Warren on Georges Island and Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, the oldest lighthouse in the United States. Georges Island and Spectacle Island are served seasonally by ferries to and from Boston, connecting on weekends and summer weekdays with a shuttle boat to several other islands, Hull, and Hingham.In 1996, there was a project proposal by Boston's mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Clifford A. Goudey to revitalize the aquaculture and fish population in Boston Harbor. This would have involved using the old tanks and granite canals on Moon Island.In 2008, Peddocks Island was used for filming scenes in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.

Georges Island is one of the islands in the Boston Harbor, situated just over 7 miles (11 km) from downtown Boston. The island has a permanent size of 39 acres (160,000 m2), plus an intertidal zone of a further 14 acres (57,000 m2), and rises to a height of 50 feet (15 m) above sea level. Historic Fort Warren is on the island. Because of this, and since a ferry operates from Boston to the island, it is a popular destination and one of the easiest islands to access in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

Grape Island is an island in the Hingham Bay area of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. The island is part of the territory of the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts. The island has a permanent size of 54 acres (220,000 m2), plus an intertidal zone of a further 46 acres (190,000 m2), and is composed of two drumlins, reaching an elevation of 70 feet (21 m) above sea level, and connected by a marshy lowland. Tidal sand spits extend from the west end towards Weymouth Neck in Webb Memorial State Park and from the east end towards Slate Island. As a visitor attraction, Grape Island offers trails, rocky beaches, and camping in wooded campsites. At weekends and summer weekdays it is served by a shuttle boat to and from Georges Island, connecting there with ferries to Boston and Quincy.The island was farmed and grazed for three hundred years, until the 1940s. On the eve of the American Revolution, the island was owned by Hingham resident Elisha Leavitt, a Tory. In 1775, British troops raided the island during the siege of Boston, as Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John about May 24, 1775: "...it seems their Expidition (sic) was to Grape Island for Levets hay." A pitched battle ensued until the British were forced to retreat to the mainland. The angry colonists burned Leavitt's barn to the ground. In the end, very little damage was done to either side despite the effort expended. Three British soldiers may have been wounded (unconfirmed), no Continental soldiers or partisans were wounded, and less than two tons of hay were taken by the British.Since the abandonment of agricultural use in the 1940s, the natural succession of vegetation has created a wooded and shrubby landscape. Vegetation on the island includes early successional tree and shrub species on the drumlins, including staghorn sumac, gray birch, and quaking aspen. The island has an abundance of berries, including blackberry, dewberry, raspberry, blueberry, huckleberry, and American elderberry. The island's marshy lowland contains salt tolerant species such as saltspray rose, cordgrass, purple loosestrife, honeysuckle, and seaside goldenrod.Grape Island contains two freshwater springs. One spring is located on the north side of the western drumlin and is located underneath a large boulder that faces Peddock's Island. Another freshwater spring is located behind the marsh that is situated in the saddle between the two drumlins. Both of these areas are off the trail.