As part of its 40th anniversary year, the Boston Groundwater Trust will offer a groundwater walking tour focusing on the Back Bay on Saturday, July 18, beginning at 11 a.m., on the steps of Trinity Church in Copley Square.
The tour, led by Christian Simonelli, the BGwT’s executive director, starts in a location where guests will have a view of three notable buildings mounted on wood pilings, including Trinity Church, the Copley Branch of the Boston Public Library, and Old South Church, respectively.
From there, tour participants will walk down Dartmouth Street towards the Commonwealth Avenue Mall as Simonelli identifies other significant structures built on wood piles along the way.
“We’ll look at the infrastructure, the monitoring wells – everything we use as tools to preserve the buildings we’ll talk about,” Simonelli told this reporter.
Most of the Back Bay was created by filling in former tidelands, so many buildings in the neighborhood depend on wood-pile foundations driven into the filled land and capped with granite blocks.
“Those wood piles can remain strong for generations—but only if they remain submerged. When groundwater drops below the tops of the piles, exposure to air can allow decay to begin,” explained Simonelli. “Maintaining groundwater levels is therefore essential to protecting tens of millions of dollars’ worth of some of Boston’s most renowned real estate. It’s our core mission at the Trust.”
The Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay has partnered with BGwT to help get the word out about this upcoming walking tour, while Simonelli previously led a well-attended groundwater walking tour of lower Beacon Hill on June 20.
Meanwhile, BGwT is already planning additional groundwater walking tours of the Fenway and the South End for the fall, with subsequent tours of other parts of the city being considered for afterwards.
“We look forward to continuing these informative, interactive tours as we raise awareness of the Trust’s work to protect more than 8,000 buildings across the city,” said Simonelli.
Visit bostongroundwater.org to R.S.V.P. for the July 18 Back Bay groundwater walking tour and to learn more about BGwT.