Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

Building 18, the Boiler and Blacksmith Shop, has been rehabilitated to serve as part of the headquarters complex for Urban Outfitters. Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office / Photo by John Rudy

The Philadelphia Navy Yard was established in 1801 on Federal Street in the Southwark District of Philadelphia, an area along the Delaware River roughly 2 miles southeast of City Hall (part of this area was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Southwark Historic District in 1972).

Construction of the USS New Jersey at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, July 1942.
U.S. Navy

In 1868 the Navy Yard, later renamed the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, was moved to League Island, where it remained for the rest of its history. Between 1873 and 1875 the first permanent buildings at the site were in place. When it was listed in the National Register in 1999, the former Navy facility at the south end of Broad Street was 482 acres stretching west to the mouth of the Schuylkill River, east to the former Mustin Aviation Field, south to the Delaware River and north to Interstate 95. The facility listed included the shipyard, Naval Boiler and Turbine Laboratory, Marine Barracks, Naval Receiving Station, Naval Radio and Sounding Radar Laboratory, and Naval Air Material Center. After its official closing on September 27, 1996, the shipyard received a new lease on life as a business park, with many companies taking advantage of the Rehabilitation Investment Tax Credit program to adaptively reuse its historic buildings.

On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, marking its official entry into World War I. “The Yard,” as it was called by those who worked there, constructed its first ships at this time, including the troop transport USS Henderson, the hospital ship USS Relief, the destroyer tender USS Dobbin and four minesweepers. Construction also began on two other ships, the battlecruisers Constitution and United States. In addition to ships, the Yard built seaplanes and flying boats at its Naval Aircraft Factory (NAF). None of this construction would have been possible without the 12,000 workers added to the Yard at the onset of the war.

Ralph H. Ford Jr.’s retirement certificate from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
Courtesy Kathleen Heinrich

By January 1941, as clouds of another war were brewing, 22-year-old Ralph Harrison Ford Jr., my maternal grandfather, embarked on a career at the Yard. He would be one of more than 40,000 workers there during World War II whose labor would contribute to repairing 574 ships and building 53, including the battleships USS New Jersey and USS Wisconsin. With the exception of a short stint serving stateside in the U.S. Navy from May 22, 1944, to February 8, 1946, Ford would continue working at the Yard until December 18, 1972, when cervical arthritis resulting from years of hauling heavy material up and down ships’ ladders forced him to retire.

All history is in some way family history. The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of World War I and the 75th anniversary of World War II and the preservation of related sites remind us that our own family histories are connected to the everyday people who ensured the outcome of those wars, not only the leaders, decorated heroes and flying aces, but also the thousands of workers who toiled at places like the Yard to support the war effort.

Recent listings in the National Register of Historic Places include St. Thomas Memorial Church, Oakmont, Allegheny County; and Harmony Mennonite Meetinghouse and Cemetery, Jackson Township, Butler County.

Keith Heinrich is a historic preservation specialist who coordinates the National Register Program for the western part of Pennsylvania at PHMC’s State Historic Preservation Office.