Anthony's Pier 4
Restaurant information
Established1963
Closed2013
Previous owner(s)Anthony Athanas
CityBoston
StateMassachusetts
CountryU.S.
Coordinates42°21′04″N 71°02′38″W / 42.351°N 71.044°W / 42.351; -71.044

Anthony's Pier 4 was a restaurant on the South Boston waterfront opened in 1963 by restaurateur Anthony Athanas. In the 1980s it was one of the highest-grossing restaurants in the United States. It closed in 2013 and the site was scheduled for redevelopment.

History

Restaurateur Anthony Athanas opened Anthony's Pier 4 in 1963, and lived in an apartment above it. It served traditional American food with an emphasis on locally caught seafood; the dining room, with seating for 500, overlooked Boston Harbor on three sides.[1][2] In 1968, Athanas bought a 1927 former Hudson River cruise ship, the SS Peter Stuyvesant, and brought it from New York to Boston, where a specially built concrete and steel cradle held it in place adjacent to the restaurant; it served as a private bar and dining room and held a wine cellar as well as art works and mementoes collected by Athanas. The ship broke free, turned turtle, and sank during the Blizzard of February 1978; after unsuccessful efforts to salvage it, in 1979 all but the hull was removed.[3][4]

The restaurant shot to prominence when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton ate there in 1964 while Richard Burton's Hamlet was at the Shubert Theatre.[2] It was a prominent restaurant throughout its first two decades, attracting both out-of-town celebrities and Boston politicians.[1][5] By the early 1980s, it was grossing about $12 million annually, making it one of the five highest-grossing restaurants in the United States.[1][5][6]

Anthony's Pier 4

Athanas died in 2005;[1][7] the restaurant closed in 2013.[2][5] A condominium tower was erected on the site of the parking lot,[5] and in 2016–17 the restaurant building was demolished and the remains of the Stuyvesant were dredged up for scrap in early 2017.[3] A multi-use complex on the site including offices and condominiums opened in 2018.[8][9]

Winter Hill Gang murders

In 1982, Brian Halloran and Michael Donahue were murdered in the restaurant's parking lot by Whitey Bulger and another associate of the Winter Hill Gang.[10] In 2014, Anthony's Pier 4 having closed, this murder was recreated at the Porthole in Lynn, Massachusetts for the 2015 film Black Mass.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Driscoll, Edgar; Levenson, Michael (May 23, 2005). "Boston's iconic restaurateur Anthony Athanas dies". Casper Star-Tribune. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Shanahan, Mark (July 6, 2013). "Anthony's Pier 4 will close for good in August". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on July 9, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Baker, Billy (February 22, 2017). "SS Stuyvesant, a casualty of the Blizzard of '78, leaves its watery grave". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017.
  4. Clancy, Dave (2001). "Peter Stuyvesant". Hunting New England Shipwrecks. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Logan, Tim (March 29, 2016). "Anthony's Pier 4 will fall to wrecking ball". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  6. Taylor, David (September 17, 2007). "Anthony's Pier 4, the long-standing temple to perfectly cooked seafood, remains Boston's freshest catch". Forbes. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  7. Arnett, Alison (May 21, 2005). "Anthony Athanas, Boston's iconic restaurateur, dies". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  8. "Tishman Speyer sells Pier 4 to CommonWealth Partners for $450 million - designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects". New England Real Estate Journal. September 7, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  9. Acitelli, Tom (June 13, 2017). "Pier 4 condos in Boston's Seaport: Here are the latest renderings". Curbed Boston. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  10. Murphy, Shelley; Valencia, Milton J. (July 8, 2013). "Bulger's former protégé Weeks recounts tutelage". The Boston Globe. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  11. "Porthole stages murder scene for Bulger film". Item Live. June 3, 2014. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
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