Old State House near Boston's original shoreline

The line of Boston's 17th- and 18th-century shoreline roughly follows present-day State Street, and the Old State House stands adjacent to that historic waterfront line. Much of the area east of State Street toward the current harbor was created later by successive landfilling projects in the 18th–20th centuries. As a result, the Old State House sits near the city's former natural shoreline while modern wharves and filled land now lie seaward of it.