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Boston Common adding restrooms in the form of a hard-to-miss trailer

Move is part of a Friends of the Public Garden pilot to gain feedback on more permanent facilities at the park

Photo via Friends of the Public Garden

Boston Common is getting a new set of restrooms courtesy of a three-month pilot program underwritten by the Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust and organized by the Friends of the Public Garden.

The trailer is expected to roll into America’s oldest public park this week, and will be open through October.

It’ll be hard to miss, too: The trailer will be wrapped in an 1870 image of Boston Common and the surrounding city. If the pilot is particularly successful this year, the Friends of the Public Garden plans to roll out the trailer next summer and fall—and maybe the next summer and fall after that.

The idea is not just to offer relief to the teeming masses of tourists and locals in the Common area. It’s also to draw feedback.

“What we learn during this pilot, and what we hear during the master planning process, will inform proposals for increased permanent restroom facilities on the Common,” the Friends of the Public Garden said in a release.

The trailer will be located this go-round along MacArthur Mall, halfway between the Common’s Charles/Beacon entrance and the mid-block crossing of Charles Street. It will include three women’s stalls and a sink; one men’s stall, three urinals, and a sink; one accessible restroom with toilet and sink; a baby-changing station; and on-site security.

The trailer will be cleaned every four hours and regularly pumped out. It’ll be open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.