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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