Magazine Beach

Our summer programs have delighted children and adults alike year after year. Here magician Bonaparte connects with a fan. MIT was lead sponsor in 2018.

MIT has been a contributor to summer programs since 2015, and this past year was both lead sponsor for summer programs and a lead sponsor for our Sept. 16 Benefit Party. In addition to contributing money—always nice—they’ve put their students to work for us. In 2013, MIT students in City to City, drafted our initial strategic plan, created an exhibit for us, and set up our Facebook page. Thanks, MIT, for believing in us and in the importance of this 17-acre riverside park.

The new rafter tails, with old longleaf heart pine donated by Longleaf Lumber in 2014.

Longleaf Lumber bailed us out in 2014, when the new pressure-treated pine rafter tails ordered for the Powder Magazine arrived cracked and twisted. In their place, Longleaf donated some old growth rough-sawn longleaf heart pine that was perfect and true. (These were repurposed posts from the old Crocker Paper Mill in Holyoke, MA.) Now, for the shoreline renovation of the park, they have donated some old live oak timbers to use as seating. (The logs were salvaged from the Charlestown Navy Yard. A few are currently being used as seating at Walden Pond, Fresh Pond, and on the Cambridge Common.) Look for these logs along the newly improved path next year.

Young readers enjoy an old log Longleaf Lumber salvaged from the Charlestown Navy Yard–now a bench at Walden Pond.

The revitalization of Magazine Beach is happening because of State, City, individual, business and foundation investment in this public space—through private-public partnership. MIT and Longleaf Lumber have lead the way and we applaud and appreciate their engagement.

City Council Votes Another $155k of CPA Funds for Park & DCR will Match This

Thrilling news: Monday night City Council voted to accept the CPA Committee’s recommendations to invest another $155k+ into shoreline improvements and DCR will match this! After the canoe/kayak launch is completed this fall, look for activity from the launch (at the east end of the park) to the Powder Magazine (at its center): an improved river path, invasive plant removal, and new native plants, views, and seating.

Biogen and Charles River Cleanup Project Volunteers Pitch In

Last Friday 40 Biogen volunteers dug out phragmites and cut off ragweed seed heads in the eastern swale, weeded around the Powder Magazine, and picked up trash and branches. This was part of Biogen Cares Deeply Day, when over 800 Biogen employees engaged in service around the Boston area. Thanks for making Magazine Beach a more inviting destination, Biogen!

And this Sunday, Cambridge Rindge & Latin high school students helped us prepare the Powder Magazine and park for the Benefit. They set up the canopies, lights, tables, chairs, balloons and decorations, and weeded, picked up trash, and moved mulch. Thanks for making the Powder Magazine magical! The Charles River Cleanup Project engages in cleanups along the river; they are stewards of the watershed.

Sunday was gorgeous–a last taste of summer before the fall–and over 150 gathered at the newly renovated 1818 Powder Magazine to celebrate both it and all the great things happening at the park. Over the past year, DCR has completed the work on the Magazine, installed a spray deck, removed the broken wading pool and reseeded the lawn. They are now building a canoe/kayak launch and outlook. This summer, over 13,000 people used the pool, while countless others splashed at the spray deck and picnicked under the shade trees.

There’s more! Magazine Beach Partners held over 25 summer events, drawing almost 1,400 participants.  We mounted temporary interpretative markers about the watershed and published spring and summer editions of Nature Notes @ Magazine Beach. And  in collaboration with the Charles River Conservancy, Charles River Watershed Association and Riverside Boat Club, we helped organize over a dozen invasive removals and cleanups.

All of this is happening because of partnerships, and that—a celebration of partnership—was the  theme of Sunday’s event. It is with the State, City and community working together, with the help of local businesses and foundations, that we’re moving ahead. See photos of an enchanted evening below. We raised nearly $28,000 at the event!

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Come join us for dinner, drinks and live music Sunday, Sept. 16, 6-8pm—at the restored Powder Magazine! (Rain location also magical: Riverside Boat Club.) Celebrate progress at the park and toast the future. Music by Best Ever Chicken and great speakers and MC, too.

Pause to celebrate recent improvements at the park:

• A new spray deck
• A restored Powder Magazine—the oldest structure on the river!
• A new picnicking lawn (where there once was a broken wading pool)
• A canoe/kayak launch and outlook—in the works…
  None of this would have happened without your support.

Buy your tickets NOW!
Tickets are $75/pp or $125 for 2 and tax deductible.
Make checks out to: Magazine Beach Partners, Inc.
Mail them to: Marge Amster, MBPs Treasurer, 10 McTernan St., Cambridge, MA 02139 or pay on Paypal at magazinebeach.org.

A big 1st birthday party for Rylee, a gathering of the Church of the Nazarene, and a Mass Cali (Calisthenics) meet-up group were enjoying a spectacular afternoon at the park yesterday, along with proud parents out strolling (their daughter will move into her Harvard dorm tomorrow), and others picnicking, reading, dog walking and just hanging out.

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The pool is closed but the spray deck is OPEN until Sept. 3. And the port-o-potties will stay at the park through mid-September. Enjoy these last days of summer at our local urban oasis.

We hope you saw our letter in the last Thursday’s Cambridge Chronicle: Happy birthday, Magazine Beach!

Almost 1,400 attended our FREE summer programs at the park this summer–savoring the 17-acre open space for nature exploration, stories, magic, clown silliness, yoga, music, children’s games dance and art.

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Many thanks to our sponsors and partners who enabled this fun.

Sponsors: MIT (lead sponsor!), and Kimco, the Charles River Conservancy, Forest City and the Central Square Business Association.

Partners: the Department of Conservation & Recreation, the Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge Arts, Cambridge Community Schools, Blue Hills Observatory, Knucklebones, Mass Audubon, Make Music Boston, Green Cambridge’s Cambridge Wildlife Puppetry Project, the Druid, Jackie O’Riley’s Dance Studio and MIT’s Media Lab.

The summer isn’t over! Enjoy the pool until August 23 and the spray deck until Sept. 3. To picnicking, swimming and splashing at Magazine Beach!

The fence is down, the splash deck is spraying, the boat launch is underway and the pool is open until NEXT Thursday, August 23. Thanks to DCR for removing the broken wading pool and reseeding the lawn–which has now taken. Picnickers are welcome there, but please tread softly!

The old broken wading pool is gone and the new lawn is open for picnicking!

The spray deck has been a great hit. DCR is working to resolve drainage issues there. Have patience! (Water has been draining onto the grass behind the pool, making it soggy.)

The spray deck is open until Sept. 3.

R. Bates Construction are hard at work on the canoe/kayak launch and outlook. We’re still hoping that you’ll be able to use these this fall.

The canoe/kayak launch is under construction.

Thanks to the good neighbors who have been picking up trash at the park. It makes a huge difference. Please feel welcome to join in. Also, thanks to the CRC and Adobe volunteers for removing bittersweet, pick up trash and weeding the flower bed in front of the pool house last week.

Adobe volunteers, working with the CRC, weeded the flowerbed.

Enjoy these last days of summer. The pool is open until August 23 and the spray deck until Sept. 3.

The pool is open until August 23.

Last night the park was busy with celebration, with birthday parties, family picnics, our 2nd Annual Traditional Irish Session, and ArtBoat.Traditional musicians from the Druid and dancers from O’Riley Irish Dance took the stage, along with some exuberant members of the audience, large and small. Thanks are due to the organizers: Sean Clohessy, Jackie O’Riley, and Brian O’Donovan; and to those who provided essential bits: the Boston Dance Alliance (for the dance floor), Home Depot (for the generator), and the Riverside Boat Club (for the chairs). What a lovely evening!

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Then, Laura Perovich, PhD student in the Object-Based Media group at the MIT Media Lab, brought ArtBoat to the park.  To art and creative expression at Magazine Beach!

ArtBoat as photographed by Jorge Valdez (jvaldezm2503@gmail.com)

If you’d like to be added to the ArtBoat mailing list to learn about future events, see pictures from the event, and provide feedback, go to:  https://goo.gl/forms/TWoXkU7jCR4j8dpx1 or contact Laura Perovich at artboat@lauraperovich.com.  Laura asks, “please share your pictures from this event! Post them with the hashtag #ArtBoatCambridge or send them to artboat@lauraperovich.com.”

Bring a picnic, your instrument, and your dancing shoes to the park for our 2nd Annual Traditional Irish Session, 5:30-7:30pm. Some of Boston’s best traditional players, including Joey Abarta (Uilleann Pipes), Tina Lech (fiddle) and Ted Davis (banjo/guitar) will play and Jackie O’Riley, of O’Riley Irish Dance, will lead free instruction in traditional Irish step! Thank you, the Druid, Jackie O’Riley and Brian O’Donovan, for bringing this amazing event to the park. Meet at the dance floor beside the pedestrian footbridge (at the foot of Magazine Street).

Then, from 8-9pm, Laura Perovich of the Media Lab will bring us Light Painting with Art Boats, making light paintings on the Charles.  Meet behind the swimming pool to drive remote controlled boats that will paint the river.

Parking: If the park’s 3 parking lots are full, you can park in the neighborhood where it says residential parking only–it’s Sunday, and parking is easy in Cport. Better yet, though, take the T to Central Square, or bike or walk to the park.

Fly, Buzz & Honk! Festival on Friday Celebrated the Many Creatures With Whom We Share the Park

On Friday, the Cambridge Wildlife Puppetry Project of Green Cambridge brought the Fly, Buzz & Honk! Festival to the park. An all-star cast including Mass Audubon, Ranger Jean of Fresh Pond, Green Cambridge, Meadowscaping for Biodiversity, and, of course, the CWFF,  led beetle, bee sock puppet and nature journal making, pollinator relays, nature exploration, and music, too. Thank you, all!

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Note: Due to rain, the Fly, Buzz & Honk Festival has been postponed to Friday!

Lisa Kumpf of the Charles River Watershed Association spoke with teens about wetlands.

On Monday, 25 teens from the two Cambridge Mayor’s Youth Employment Program, Team Green Sense and C.C.C. STEAM, toured the park to learn about ecology, watersheds and the history of the park and how humans have changed it over time. (Long ago, it was an island surrounded by marshes.) Partners from Mass Audubon and the CRWA collaborated for a fascinating, if a bit wet, program.

Students in another Mayor’s Program, YEEP, the Youth Environmental Entrepreneurship Program, joined us July 11 to check out the new pollinator garden that Meadowscaping for Biodiversity gave us in May. The plants are thriving and bees and butterflies abound!

On Tuesday, Mass Audubon returned to the park with Nature Detectives (for little ones, Tuesdays at 10am). Mass Audubon will be back again on Friday for the  Fly, Buzz & Honk! Festival, July 27 (the rain date!), from 10am-12:30pm. Come join us! Explore nature, play a pollinator relay game, make puppets and craft your own nature journal. Bring your lunch and then cool off afterwards at the spray deck or swimming pool. Check here in the morning to see if the program is ON or whether is will happen on Friday instead (due to the weather!).