Six storey brick warehouses on a mill street grid by the channel, and the rooftop The Departed used above Farnsworth Street.
What Fort Point looks like
A grid of narrow mill streets runs between the channel and the South Boston Bypass Road, laid out on filled tidal land. , and are flanked end to end by six storey brick warehouses, red and tan brick under flat roofs and a plain cornice line. Windows sit in shallow arched openings, repeated the same way floor after floor.
Some of the side streets are still cobblestone, barely wide enough for two cars, with black iron fire escapes zigzagging up the brick between buildings. Congress Street runs wider and busier, the same warehouses turned into offices and lofts with restaurants and shops filling the ground floors. A faded company name, its paint chipped, is still lettered high across one warehouse wall.
The channel runs along the edge, crossed by a run of steel bridges, among them the Congress Street bascule bridge with its lattice tower over the roadway. The , an old dairy stand built in the shape of an oversize milk bottle, still stands at the water's edge near the Children's Museum.
Farther from the water the warehouses run six storeys with tall arched windows and loading bays at street level, built between the 1880s and the 1920s. A Boston Wharf Company sign still spans one rooftop above the channel, facing the financial district towers on the opposite bank.
Shot in Fort Point
The Departed used a rooftop on Farnsworth Street for the confrontation between Billy and Colin. Netflix's The Sleepover later shot a stunt scene on the Congress Street bridge and a daytime scene at the Children's Museum plaza, both a few blocks away.
The Departed, 2006
The rooftop where Queenan is thrown sits above 12 Farnsworth Street, a block north of Congress Street. Billy and Colin finally confront each other there too. The block is lined with the same six storey brick warehouses, built for the Boston Wharf Company, that run through the rest of the neighborhood. Street View
The Sleepover, 2020
A stunt scene for the Netflix film was shot at night on the Congress Street bridge, which lifts to let boats through the channel. The production held Congress Street between Atlantic Avenue and Sleeper Street for four nights of filming. Street View
The Sleepover, 2020
The same production filmed a daytime scene at the Boston Children's Museum plaza, a few blocks from the bridge. The museum occupies a renovated nineteenth century brick warehouse on Fort Point Channel. Street View
What Fort Point can double for
DUMBO in Brooklyn, New York
DUMBO's six storey brick and timber warehouses share the same scale and arched window pattern as Fort Point's own mill blocks, both built for manufacturing on reclaimed waterfront land. Cobblestone side streets and cast iron fire escapes read the same way in close shots. DUMBO's bridge views and cobblestones are heavily filmed and instantly recognizable, so a production working there has to frame carefully to avoid giving away the location. Try searching brick mill street now.
The old meatpacking and produce warehouses around Fulton Market are the same era and brick and timber construction as Fort Point's own blocks, with loading doors still cut into some ground floors. The streets run wider though, built for truck traffic rather than rail wagons. Wider streets and newer glass infill among the warehouses show up in any establishing shot, so tighter framing holds the period better. Try searching brick meatpacking street now.
The Distillery District's red brick industrial buildings and cobblestone lanes are close in scale to Fort Point's own streets, and its warehouses date from the same general period. The district is fully pedestrianized and dressed for tourism though, with cafe furniture and signage that need clearing for a period shot. Modern cafe seating and string lighting are visible in nearly every angle, so a production needs a full dressing pass to pass for an unstaged industrial street. Try searching cobblestone brick street now.
