diff --git a/packages/angular-cli/commands/serve.ts b/packages/angular-cli/commands/serve.ts
index 4b19b651edb1..0a1b4e08ae20 100644
--- a/packages/angular-cli/commands/serve.ts
+++ b/packages/angular-cli/commands/serve.ts
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ export interface ServeTaskOptions {
   aot?: boolean;
   sourcemap?: boolean;
   open?: boolean;
+  baseHref?: string;
 }
 
 const ServeCommand = Command.extend({
@@ -90,6 +91,12 @@ const ServeCommand = Command.extend({
       aliases: ['o'],
       description: 'Opens the url in default browser',
     },
+    { name: 'base-href',
+      type: String,
+      default: null,
+      aliases: ['bh'],
+      description: 'makes the content available on path e.g. http://host:port/path'
+    }
   ],
 
   run: function(commandOptions: ServeTaskOptions) {
diff --git a/packages/angular-cli/tasks/serve-webpack.ts b/packages/angular-cli/tasks/serve-webpack.ts
index 5f8a98980966..9d96472acaf7 100644
--- a/packages/angular-cli/tasks/serve-webpack.ts
+++ b/packages/angular-cli/tasks/serve-webpack.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ export default Task.extend({
       commandOptions.target,
       commandOptions.environment,
       undefined,
-      undefined,
+      commandOptions.baseHref,
       commandOptions.aot,
       commandOptions.sourcemap
     ).config;
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ export default Task.extend({
       ),
       headers: { 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*' },
       historyApiFallback: {
+        index: commandOptions.baseHref,
         disableDotRule: true,
         htmlAcceptHeaders: ['text/html', 'application/xhtml+xml']
       },
@@ -83,7 +84,8 @@ export default Task.extend({
       watchOptions: {
         poll: CliConfig.fromProject().config.defaults.poll
       },
-      https: commandOptions.ssl
+      https: commandOptions.ssl,
+      publicPath: commandOptions.baseHref
     };
 
     if (sslKey != null && sslCert != null) {
diff --git a/tests/e2e/tests/test/e2e.ts b/tests/e2e/tests/test/e2e.ts
index ca66091906c7..7cb9d7a619e3 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/tests/test/e2e.ts
+++ b/tests/e2e/tests/test/e2e.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import {ng, killAllProcesses} from '../../utils/process';
 import {expectToFail} from '../../utils/utils';
 import {ngServe} from '../../utils/project';
+import {replaceInFile} from "../../utils/fs";
 
 
 function _runServeAndE2e(...args: string[]) {
@@ -19,5 +20,12 @@ export default function() {
     .then(() => _runServeAndE2e())
     .then(() => _runServeAndE2e('--prod'))
     .then(() => _runServeAndE2e('--aot'))
-    .then(() => _runServeAndE2e('--aot', '--prod'));
+    .then(() => _runServeAndE2e('--aot', '--prod'))
+    // this should fail because we haven't changed the e2e test yet
+    .then(() => expectToFail(() => _runServeAndE2e('--base-href /test-base-href/')))
+    .then(() => replaceInFile('e2e/app.po.ts',
+      'browser.get(\'/\');',
+      'browser.get(\'/test-base-href/\');'))
+    // now it should pass
+    .then(() => _runServeAndE2e('--base-href /test-base-href/'));
 }