Historic underground wall damaged in water main replacement project

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – A water main replacement on East Bay Street near the Battery was temporarily halted this week when crews accidentally damaged a historic underground wall.

“I started getting calls, frantic calls, from my staff saying ‘oh my god we’re watching this happening right in front of us,’’’ said Winslow Hastie, the President and CEO of the Historic Charleston Foundation.

“’…and it’s clear that they’ve uncovered it, and we are watching them jack hammering through the brick.’”

The HCF team witnessed Charleston Water System contractors hit the brick on Tuesday since the project is taking place right outside of their headquarters.

The utility, which is not affiliated with the City of Charleston, said they consulted with the nonprofit ahead of time, but there was miscommunication about how far out the wall extended into the road.

“So, in the middle of digging up the road, they realized what we were digging into, so we stopped work immediately. We want to give them as much time as possible to document, take photos, make sure we are capturing that history,” Matthew Kenwright, the Communications Manager for Charleston Water System, told News 2.

Experts said the wall was built in the late 1600s and served as protection for early colonists. Archaeologists were on site on Wednesday to document newly discovered artifacts and draw sketches of the structure.

“So, mostly going through and finding the artifacts that they’re pulling from the fill. A lot of fill, especially deep down would’ve been stuff that people were dumping from that early colonial period. We found some early colonial finds. Basically, people dumping trash over the wall or anything else,” explained John Fisher. Fisher is a Curator of Archaeology at the Charleston Museum and serves on the Mayor’s Walled City Task Force.

CWS said they anticipate the water main work will be finished by late next week. Officials hope this will be a learning experience ahead of future projects.

“It’s really about coordination and awareness. If it is discovered, if we know there are infrastructure or utility projects going on around where the wall could be, is taking an extra layer of precaution and care,” Hastie said.

Both Hastie and Fisher pointed to the situation as an example of why the City of Charleston needs an archaeological ordinance and a city archaeologist.