The Sudbury Aqueduct, a brick and cement waterway built in the late 19th century, lies under McGuinn Hall at a depth of some 30 feet. Running from the Sudbury River watershed, 16 miles to the west, the aqueduct ends at the lower, Chestnut Hill Reservoir. McGuinn’s design deflects the building’s weight from the area directly over the aqueduct, which was constructed to carry 80 million gallons of water a day to Boston and remains an active part of the city’s emergency supply system.
A “shallow brook,” lined by stonewalls along part of its upper reaches, flowed from a point on South Street (now College Road), to the upper reservoir (today the Lower Campus). Perhaps submerged—no one knows for sure—its course passed under what is now Stokes Hall North, Fulton Hall, and Cushing Hall.
Gasson Hall
McGuinn Hall
Higgins stairs
A steep wooded banking that today is the site of the Higgins stairs. From the upper reservoir (called the Lawrence Basin) to the site of Gasson Hall, the land rises some 80 feet.
Maloney Hall
Conte Forum
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