Anthony's Pier 4

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.

Anthony's Pier 4
Restaurant information
Established	1963
Closed	2013
Previous owner(s)	Anthony Athanas
City	Boston
State	Massachusetts
Country	U.S.
Coordinates	42.351°N 71.044°W / 42.351; -71.044

History

Restaurateur Anthony Athanas opened Anthony's Pier 4 in 1963 and lived in an apartment above it. It served traditional American food emphasizing 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]

Filming Location

Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair, a 1968 film, was shot here for one of its dinner date scenes between Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.^[12]