New woes for the MBTA

AN UGLY CRACK runs through the historic Old South Church, from foundation to roof line. The 135-year-old church is a casualty of an MBTA construction project to install an elevator shaft at the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston streets. But when it comes to taking responsibility for the damage, a feeling of fellowship is not shared by all.

"The T has ultimate responsibility that the church is made whole," said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. He contends that J.F. White Contracting Co., the contractor on the job site, is responsible for repair costs, which are still being assessed.

The company did not return a call seeking comment.

The church's senior minister and chief executive, the Rev. Nancy S. Taylor, said the church has its own work crew assessing damage and repair options. "The MBTA and Old South Church are working well together," she said.

The federally mandated project was undertaken to make the Copley Square T station accessible to the handicapped. But long before the crack in the church, the construction project created an angry rift between the MBTA and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, which tried to persuade the T to move the elevator construction across Dartmouth Street, away from the church. A suit filed by the neighborhood association seeking to accomplish that goal was dismissed.

State Representative Martha Walz, a former president of the neighborhood association, said the damage was predictable and preventable. A 2005 engineering report done for Old South Church warned of cracks and other potential problems. "Differential vertical settlement of the Dartmouth Street wall could cause cracking of masonry or stained-glass windows. Lowering of the groundwater table could cause deteroriation of timber piles that support the Dartmouth Street wall," states the report from LeMessurier Consultants of Cambridge.

"The exact outcome is what we worried about," said Walz, who faults MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas for refusing to listen to legitimate concerns. She still believes the elevator should be relocated.

Pesaturo said the neighborhood association "remains bitter" that it lost a legal battle to "force people with disabilities to use a separate entrance at public facilities."

But imputing nasty motives to T critics is not the way to resolve this clash between modernity and history. The church, a precious piece of Boston's past, must be restored. The MBTA and the state's next transportation secretary - who also serves as T board chairman - should work harder to find the common ground between the demands of progress and national heritage.