Magazine Beach

Above: A red juvenile hawk downed a drone at our the park Oct. 11, 2014. This youtube video, by Christopher Schmidt, has had over 4.5m views to date. (Thank you, Chris, for the correction and original video link. Note: Chris says that both the hawk and drone survived the encounter.)

Below:  Deputy Fire Chief Jack Gelinas and now Asst. Fire Chief Gerard E. Mahoney (a firefighter then) beside a presidential helicopter May 21, 1989. That day, helicopters delivered President H. W. Bush and French President Francois Mitterrand to Magazine Beach, to a speaking engagement at Boston University. Thanks to Asst. Fire Chief Gerard E. Mahoney for sharing the photo and his memories of the event–below.

On May 21, 1989 President George H. W. Bush and French President Francois Mitterrand delivered a joint commencement address at Boston University on Nickerson Field.

A decision was made among the US Secret Service and local and state law enforcement to have the helicopters land at Magazine Beach.

I was working that day as the Aide to Deputy Fire Chief Jack Gelinas. He called me at home the day before to alert me to what our assignment would be for the day. We had fire department assets staged at Magazine Beach several hours before the presidential party arrived. They flew down from Kennebunkport where the Bush’s had hosted the Mitterrand’s. As a young firefighter I can tell you it was an awesome experience.

There were three identical helicopters commonly known as Marine 1. Only seconds before the landing were we told which one was carrying the two Presidents. The two first ladies flew on another chopper and White House as well as French staff were on the third.

They were accompanied by two very large “birds” as they call them which were carrying the White House Press Corps.

While the commencement was going on we all had the opportunity to tour Marine 1 but it was not the actual helicopter carrying the President. We also had a great group photo taken in front of Marine 1 with the President’s pilot who was a Marine Corps Colonel.

–Asst. Chief Gerard E. Mahoney 

Do you have stories of Magazine Beach? We’re collecting them. E-mail them to cathzusy@gmail.com.

[Update 2.6.15: Due to the snowstorm predicted for this weekend and Monday, we may need to postpone the Dessert Cafe again to Monday, Feb. 23, from 6-8pm. Look for an update here late Sunday afternoon. C.]

Due to Monday’s snow, we postponed our Dessert Cafe until next Monday, Feb. 9th. Same time and same place: 6-8pm at Cambridge Arts (City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway). Please join us for delicious sweets, hot drinks, great conversation and our exhibit, Magazine Beach–A Place Apart, too!

Party Goers Share Memories of the Park 1.31

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Time slowed down on Saturday afternoon, as guests shared stories of Magazine Beach. They spoke of seagulls, wayward youth, baseball games, a nearby ice cream shop and drive-in, pool and river swims, playing ball to the bright lights of Braves Field (across the river, now BU’s Nickerson Field), renting paddle boats, launching boats into the river at Lindstrom Boat Launch, discovering a kicker for the N.E. Patriots doing an exhibition night there, and catching a glimpse of President George H. W. Bush and his helicopter, landing in the fields–Pres. Bush arriving to speak at BU. Many thanks to all who participated in the Memory Party and all who made the event happen.

If you couldn’t make the event, but have a story, please contact cathzusy@gmail.com or 617-868-0489. We want your Magazine Beach memories! Or you can share your story at Magazine Beach Its History and Your Memories on Thursday, Feb. 5th at 1pm, at the Citywide Senior Center, at Central Square. See you there!

Magazine Beach is Now Open for Business–the Business of Making Snowmen!

Photos of the Memory Party are courtesy of Michael Schaffer. Thank you, Michael!

Sorry all, but due to our next big snowstorm–tomorrow–we’re postponing our Dessert Cafe until NEXT Monday, Feb. 9th. Same time and same place: 6-8pm at Cambridge Arts! Looking forward to seeing you then.

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Please join us at Cambridge Arts, at the City Hall Annex at 344 Broadway, this Saturday from noon to 3pm, to share memories of Magazine Beach Park. Do you swim there? Picnic there? Celebrate important days and events? Please share your significant recollections of this special place. We’ll share them with the park designers as they begin to map out changes to the upriver (playing fields to the Riverside Boat Club) part of the park this year. A complimentary lunch will be served.

And then on Monday evening, Feb. 2, 6-8pm, we’ll host our Dessert Café, with delicious homemade goodies and hot drinks. Several organizations will co-host the Dessert Café. They include: the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Cambridge Arts, Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge Historical Commission, Riverside Boat Club and Charles River Conservancy.

Both events are free and open to the public. They celebrate our exhibition, Magazine Beach—A Place Apart, up until Feb. 27. A note about transportation: Please walk or take public transportation to the City Hall Annex. Due to all the snow, parking will be difficult!

CCTV Show Features Volunteer Contributions at Magazine Beach

To watch Bob Hurlbut, Brian Conway and Cathie Zusy talk about our efforts, and exhibition at Cambridge Arts, go to: http://youtu.be/9RcDD76Ae7U. Thanks to Bob, for inviting us to join him and to Michael Schaffer, for creating this link for us!

3rd Graders from the King School Tour Exhibit

Today two third grade classes from the King School visiting Magazine Beach–A Place Apart. The students have been learning about Martin Luther King, the American Revolution and Cambridge history. The focus of our tour was “How do you make a change in your community?” Many of the students knew the park and had swum in the pool there or played soccer or T-ball.

Yesterday, the Boston Olympics 2024 Committee presented their proposal for Boston.  They’re putting the Triathlon on the playing fields at Magazine Beach! For more information about the 2024 proposal, go to: 2024Boston.org. Never fear, they will undo what ever they do, and perhaps even make it better. Perhaps they’ll ensure that we’ll have a more swimmable Charles sooner rather than later? This would be good for everyone, fish included! The Boston Olympics Committee will be presenting in Cambridge in the coming months, so you’ll have an opportunity to learn more and ask questions. (They made their plans public yesterday.)

Boston Olympic 2024 Proposal for Magazine Beach–Triathlon Location

“We used to take the Granite Street bus from Central Square to the Magazine pool.” ”We went to Magazine Beach if my father took me.” “The boat pulled up to the Magazine Beach pier. We jumped into the river to cool off.”

Did you ever swim in the pool or the river at Magazine Beach? Boat off the pier? Picnic under the trees? Get cotton candy from the snackbar there? Or just hang out on the terrace on late hot summer nights?

Young and old, we’re eager for your stories of the Maga and the Riv. Please share them over a complimentary lunch with us at a Memory Party on Saturday, Jan. 31, from 12-3pm at 344 Broadway.

We hope to gather stories of the park and then use them to inform landscape designers who will be working to update the western part of the park in 2015! The Memory Party will be at the Magazine Beach exhibit at Cambridge Arts on the 2^nd floor of the City Hall Annex at 344 Broadway. The Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Cambridge Arts Council, the Cambridge Historical Commission, and storytellers at massmouth are all working together on this and the stories you share will ultimately be archived at the CHC.

If you have photographs of family and friends at the park, please bring them. We’d love to see them. We’re looking forward to hearing how this riverside park has been part of your life. Let us know if you need a ride to the event. Also, if you can’t come but have stories, please send them to me at 202 Hamilton St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

See you Saturday, January 31^st! The inspiration for all of this is our exhibit, Magazine Beach—A Place Apart, which we can’t wait to share with you! Questions? Contact me, Cathie Zusy at 617-868-0489 or cathzusy@gmail.com.

Magazine Beach in January 2014!

What a year at the Park!

• The 1818 Powder Magazine got a new roof! (August)
• We hosted a summer of yoga, concerts, dance, children’s activities and Bread & Puppet that over 1,300 people enjoyed! (June-August.)
• DCR and the City of Cambridge funded landscape plans for the western part of the park (Phase 2, August & September).
• Common Boston brought Common Build, a design/build competition to Magazine Beach (October).
• DCR held a public meeting about bringing a “spray deck”/water feature for children to the park (October).
• Our exhibit, Magazine Beach—A Place Apart, opened at Cambridge Arts, at 344 Broadway (November 2014-February 2015). See review in Art Fuse.

And coming soon, at the exhibition at Cambridge Arts!

• Memory Party: Saturday, Jan. 31,12-3pm. Do you have a memory of swimming or picnicking or just hanging out in the park? Share it over lunch with us. These recollections will add to the story of the park and we’ll share them with the landscape designers—working to update the western part of the park in 2015!
• Dessert Café: Monday, Feb. 2, 6-8pm. With remarks by Charles Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission, Renata von Tscharner of the Charles River Conservancy, and Tom Reece of the DCR. Co-hosted by Cambridge Arts, the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Assn., Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge Historical Commission, Charles River Conservancy, and the Riverside Boat Club.
• Community Potluck: Monday, Feb. 23, 6-8pm, with bluegrass by Best Ever Chicken All are welcome. Bring a dish to share. Co-hosted by the Cambridgeport and Riverside Neighborhood Associations.

All events are free, open to the public, and at the City Hall Annex at 344 Broadway. Gallery 344 is open Monday, 8:30am-8pm; Tuesday-Thursday, 8:30am-5pm; and Friday, 8:30-12noon.

For an overview of our accomplishments in 2014, see this CCTV program with Renata von Tscharner.  Have patience: only the first 5 minutes are garbled!

Because of all of our efforts, Magazine Beach is looking better. Thank you for your financial support and for sharing your time and talents to move this project forward. To make a tax-deductible donation, see our home page!

So Grateful, Cathie Zusy for the Magazine Beach Committee, CNA

Many thanks to the 45 or so volunteers who helped out at the park this morning–despite the cold! We raked and stuffed about 86 bags of leaves and gathered many bags of trash and sticks, too. Kudos to the pharmacists-in-training at Northeastern, to the Brownies from Waltham, to Build On from CASH School in Dorchester, and to the neighbors who came out and pitched in! Many thanks also to Sasha Valleries, the Charles River Conservancy’s new Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, for organizing this event, to Evan for helping her, and to DCR for carting all the stuff away. The park is looking good!

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Despite the cold and wet, we had a wonderful turnout last night at the opening of Magazine Beach—A Place Apart. Thanks to those who weathered the weather. And the rest of you, we hope you’ll stop by and see the show.

Exhibition Dates: November 3, 2014 – February 27, 2015

Location: at Cambridge Arts, Gallery 344, City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, 2nd Floor

Hours: Monday, 8:30am-8pm; Tuesday-Thursday, 8:30am-5pm; Friday, 8:30-12noon

Many thanks to:

• Cambridge Arts for inviting us to work with them on an exhibition about Magazine Beach;
• Brian Conway for his exquisite design;
• Marilyn Wellons for her research, writing and assistance in so many ways;
• Lillian Hsu and Diana Lempel (CAC) for their helping to shape the show, making it much more interesting;
• Diana Lempel for her text, interactive idea, and clarifying questions;
• Jeremy Gaucher for helping to mount the show;
• Fred Woods for his film;
• David Craft for the plant specimens from Magazine Beach;
• Tom Scanlon for his commitment to bringing nature into the exhibition;
• All the object loaners and image and information providers;
• The Cambridge Historical Commission for sharing their rich, rich files and knowledgeable staff;
• Janet Theurer for her beautiful bouquets of Magazine Beach plants; and to
• the Magazine Beach Committee of the CNA for their tireless efforts to revitalize the park.

The Magazine Beach Committee includes: Marge Amster, Brian Conway, Olivia Fiske, Richard Garver, Decia Goodwin, Max Moore and Cathie Zusy. Other board members of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association are also key players: Bill August, Jay Shetterly, Colleen Clark and Leslie Greis. And hundreds of others have assisted at the park. Thanks to all of you and to DCR, the guardians of Magazine Beach!

Working together, we’re making make the park nicer for everyone.

The 1818 powder magazine with its new roof commanding attention at Magazine Beach, 2014. Photograph by and courtesy of Richard Hackel.

Exhibition Dates: November 3, 2014 – February 27, 2015

Opening Reception: Monday, November 17, 2014, from 6-8pm

In 2015, landscape designs for Magazine Beach – Cambridge’s 2nd largest park – will be updated and its future cast. Magazine Beach – A Place Apart looks closely at the history of these 15 acres along the Charles River from a wooded island on a tidal estuary to its current form. It examines the forces that have defined it uses – for gunpowder storage, a river bathing beach, a boathouse for rowers, a storm water sewage treatment plant, and as a favorite swimming, picnicking and recreation destination.

Magazine Beach–A Place Apart was developed by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association (CNA) in collaboration with the Cambridge Arts Council, drawing on the resources of the Cambridge Historical Commission.

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) owns and manages the Magazine Beach Park for the public.   In 2015, DCR will reopen the public process to update existing landscape plans for the park’s western portion—from the old powder magazine to the Riverside Boat Club. This follows renovation of the eastern portion in 2009. Since 2010, the CNA has worked with Cambridge and the DCR to improve the park—and at last, it’s happening. This past summer, DCR rebuilt the slate roof of the 1818 powder magazine, the park’s focal point. In September DCR committed funds, with a Cambridge match, to complete park plans.

Magazine Beach – A Place Apart offers a meditation on the past, present, and future of this dynamically changing place. We invite you to contribute to the conversation. What does Magazine Beach mean to you and what do you hope for its future?

Gallery 344 is located at the City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Cambridge, MA. It is free and open to the public on Monday, 8:30am-8pm; Tuesday-Thursday, 8:30am-5pm; Friday, 8:30-12noon. Questions? Contact Cathie Zusy, Chair, Magazine Beach Committee, Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc. at 617-868-0489 or cathzusy@gmail.com.