Staff photo by Steve Adams

Fortuitous timing of a water leak at Boston’s West End Museum saved irreplaceable artifacts of the neighborhood’s past from destruction.

The neighborhood history museum is closed indefinitely after a building system malfunction on Saturday afternoon sent water pouring throughout the four lower floors.

“I was able to run some of the irreplaceables out of harm’s way,” Museum Director Sebastian Belfanti said. “I heard a big bang and then it started raining. We were pushing water for three or four hours and were able to mitigate some of the damage.”

The museum includes exhibits dedicated to the history of the ethnic enclave which was forever changed in the 1960s by urban renewal, as blocks of tenements were demolished by the Boston Redevelopment Agency to make way for the Charles River Park high-rise complex.

Frozen pipes apparently burst and sent water cascading into the ground-floor museum space on Staniford Street. No damage estimate is yet available, Belfanti said.

The 4,000-square-foot museum was created in 2004 by the West End Housing Corp., a community development corporation that developed the residential building.

Belfanti estimated the museum will be closed for two months.

“There were more than a handful of irreplaceables that were grabbed as water started to fall on them, so they’re OK, but definitely wouldn’t have been if someone wasn’t here. There were so many near-misses in the archive,” he said.