Magazine Beach

Cool off at Veterans Memorial Swimming Pool (719 Memorial Dr.)! It is FREE and open daily, 11am – 7pm, through August 25.

Also, you can sign up for swim lessons for children ages 6 and up at the pool NOW. Classes will start this Monday, July 8^th, with one set at 10am and another at 10:30am. Sessions will be 3 or 4 weeks long; a second set of classes will start at the end of July or early August.

The water is exceptionally refreshing and what could be better than swimming outdoors on a hot, sunny day? Tip: go early or late for a quieter swim, as the local summer camps bring happy campers between 1 & 5pm each day. There is a designated lap lane, though, open at all times.

For more information about DCR swimming pools and spray decks, click here: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/recreational-activities/swimming-pools-wading-pools-and-spray-deck.html

Right: DCR has moved most of the graffiti from the Powder Magazine. Thank you!

Left: Updated: The wading pool was cleaned out but DCR couldn’t get the wading pool to drain properly, so it remained closed.

BIG NEWS that hasn’t hatched quite yet: DCR has proposed that if the City of Cambridge is willing to allocate $100,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to stabilize the Powder Magazine, that they would be willing to pay for the balance of the cost to fix the roof, re-point the masonry and restore the windows and doors. DCR would also bring electrical service to the building to power much needed security lighting there. The CPA Committee will meet this summer to consider funding proposals and will present recommendations to the City Council for approval in September. Cross your fingers! (In the meantime, we should hear if DCR will match the funds we’ve raised so far any day.)

Young girl swings with her dad, Ron Phelan.

Bluegrass by Best Ever Chicken!

Community at the park.

Enjoying the day. White figures cleansing the magazine in background.

A gentleman from 1812 with Kit Rawlins of the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Researchers and writers Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen debuted their “History on the Charles.”

Learn-to-row at the Riverside Boat Club!

One of several If this park could talk… signs. This one tells how popular Magazine Beach was as a swimming destination.

Food trucks AND our soon-to-be State Rep. Jay Livingstone, both at Magazine Beach for the first time ever. History!

Danielle Suave’s “Light, No Light”

Looking through the magazine and installation to the river.

Community performance orchestrated by Nancy Adams. (See video below.)

Children’s procession

Happy to be outside and painted!

Festive procession of children

What could be more fun than riding through puddles!

A gorgeous day at the Beach. The flags mark the shoreline of Captain’s Island.

Artforming installation in 1818 magazine

Over 200 turned out for the 2013 Celebration of Magazine Beach on Saturday, June 15, many of whom had never spent a day in the park. Highlights were:

• A procession of children, with two big bouquets of balloons, across the fields;
• Food trucks for the first time ever! And Ice cream and drinks courtesy of Toscanini’s and Trader Joe’s;
• Bluegrass by Best Ever Chicken;
• Thirty women and girls dressed in white assembled over time around the facade of of the magazine to gently brush away loose dirt, dust, and dried vines. The event was a practical and symbolic gesture of care for the nearly two hundred year-old structure destined for restoration and a future of peaceful and joyous gatherings (organized by Nancy Adams; see Ron’s Wyman’s film below: http://vimeo.com/69414298);
• The powder magazine opened up, with an amazing view of the river and art installations using fabric, sound and light inside evoking memories and meditation by Artforming and Danielle Sauvé;
• Blue flags marking the shoreline of Captain’s Island (Ross Miller, Lars Anderas and David Craft)
• White lines marking Magazine Street as it extended once to the magazine—hence its name! (Thank you DPW!);
• Dozens learning-to-row at the Riverside Boat Club;
• A new publication about the site and powder magazine there: History on the Charles, by Nina S. Cohen and Marilyn Wellons (contact cathzusy@gmail.com for a copy: $5);
• A table with maps, information about the site and information about our efforts to stabilize the powder magazine and revitalize the park (Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Cambridge Historical Commisison and Cambridge Historical Society);
• Kite flying and races and games for children organized by CR&L students;
• If this park could talk signs… sharing stories about swimming at Magazine Beach, recent efforts to improve the water quality there, and that it could have been an Olmsted Brothers park, etc.;
• And who would have known it would be such a big hit: a huge puddle in the sunken parking lot for children to bicycle through (thank you, Mother Nature!);
• Neighbors talking to neighbors, enjoying themselves, the vistas and the breeze and imagining the possibilities of the park. The space was activated. Who would have known such a resources and refuge existed just across Memorial Drive, along the banks of the Charles River?

Thanks to the many who made this event happen, including out partners: the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, the Cambridge Historical Commission, the Cambridge Historical Society, Gallery 263, UMass Boston and Artforming, and to our funders: the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Charles River Conservancy, Forest City and Anonymous.

Cathie Zusy, Chair Magazine Beach Committee, Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc.

Blue flags will mark the shoreline of Captain’s Island–yes, until 1894 there was an island there–and white paint will mark Magazine Street as it extended, long ago, to the powder magazine. Magazine Street was, in fact, a State-maintained road on which gun powder was transported to the 1818 magazine: a secure granite-block building surrounded by a foot-wide brick wall that stored powder for the militia and private use. In the 1890s the marsh land was filled in to create the current footprint of Magazine Beach Park.

Magazine Beach park as it once was. Detail from a Plan of Cambridgeport Parish, by Peter Tufts, Jr., Surveyor and Powder Magazine Keeper, 1824. Courtesy of the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Come to our Celebration on Saturday, June 15, 12-5pm, for a picnic to the bluegrass tunes of Best Ever Chicken; a festive procession of children and activities for them, too; learn-to-row at the Riverside Boat Club; and lots of ART. There will be a sound and light installation about memory in the magazine, a community performance that may include as many as 50 participants around the structure, and If this park could talk… signs all over the place. Food trucks, too!

Join us: It’s all free. Organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., DCR, Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Historical Commission, Cambridge Historical Society, Gallery 263, and UMassBoston.

Funded by: New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, Charles River Conservancy, Forest City and Anonymous

See our gorgeous poster! Mag Bach poster.final, small. pdf

Featured in the Saturday, June 15th Celebration of Magazine Beach Park are the works of three established area artists: installations by Artforming and by Danielle Sauve, and a performance by Nancy Adams.  All three works will be within or immediately outside the 1818 Powder Magazine building and draw inspiration from and interpret it’s history and influence on this point along the Charles River and in the larger arena. Below are their descriptions.

n-Gon  –  Artforming –  (installation, in the Powder Magazine main space, noon-5pm)

A site specific collaboration between Rob Trumbour and Aaron Willette of Artforming and composer and musician Jon Sakata that explores an ephemeral mapping of the memory and the latent potential of place through sonic archaeologies and evolving spatial compositions.  (www.artforming.org)

Light – No Light  (As I read the stones)  –  Danielle Sauve  –  (installation, in the Powder Magazine north addition, noon-5pm)

The installation focuses on idea of palimpsest inscribed in the material quality of the building.  Porosity, layering and absorption of (hi)stories, becomes the topic of my installation.  Light – No Light aims to illuminate and cast shadows at this turning point in the history of the Magazine. (www.daniellesauve.net)

Unsubscribe  –  Community performance organized by Nancy Adams  –  (outside the Powder Magazine building, 1pm) 

Women and girls from throughout the community will gather quietly around the facade of the former gunpowder magazine gently restoring and reclaiming the site. (Nancy was the co-director of the Boston-based alternative art center Mobius.)

See our gorgeous poster! Mag Bach poster.final, small. pdf

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The pool won’t open until Saturday, June 29th, but there’s a cool breeze along the Charles…

It was a gorgeous Memorial Day at Magazine Beach with families and friends from Cambridge, Quincy, Somerville, Malden and Boston all picnicking and savoring the warmth, rays and community.

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Postcard postmarked Sept. 29, 1906. Gift of Mrs. Paul R. Lawrence, Courtesy of the Cambridge Historical Commission.

2013 Celebration of Magazine Beach Park

Saturday, June 15, 12-5pm (rain location: Riverside Boat Club)

Tentative Program:

12 noon–  Festive procession of children (across the field)

12-2pm–  Picnic to the bluegrass tunes of Best Ever Chicken! (behind swimming pool)

1pm–  Performance by Nancy Adams and collaborators (Powder Magazine terrace)

1-5pm, ongoing

• Interpretative art installation inspired by and about memories of Magazine Beach by artists Rob Trumbour of ArtForming and Danielle Sauvé (within Powder Magazine)
• Land markings showing the former shoreline of Captain’s Island

• “If this park could talk…” signs that highlight notable stories about the building and the park
• Learn-to-row lessons (Riverside Boat Club)

Bring your whole family! Bring a picnic! Stay tuned for updates…. Questions? Contact cathzusy@gmail.com.

ALSO, be sure to read the Cambridge Chronicle‘s 5.23 article: “Magazine Beach’s Powder House To Get a Facelift.”

Take a walk to the shores of Magazine Beach. The river herring are jumping and swimming upstream to spawn—a sign of both spring and of a cleaner, healthier Charles River. In 2011, the Charles River Watershed Association won the International Riverprize for their cleanup of the Charles. See: http://crwa.org/releases/2011/riverprize.html

Regarding the herring run: “Each spring, millions of river herring migrate into Massachusetts’ coastal water to begin their natural trek up dozens of our coastal streams and rivers. They are returning to the place of their birth, to spawn and create a new generation of river herring.” From A Guide to Viewing River Herring in Coastal Massachusetts:

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/publications/river_herring_viewing_guide.pdf

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Thanks for your Cleanup, Novartis!

On May 10^th , 70 employees from Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research volunteered at Magazine Beach.  They raked leaves, picked up sticks, collected trash, and mulched and weeded the garden in front of the pool. This is the 2^nd year Novartis has done a major cleanup at the site. Fabulous.

Thanks are also due to the Charles River Conservancy for organizing the event and to DCR for the mulch and trash and compost removal.

More Good News: Grant #3 from the NEGEF!

We just learned that we received another grant from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund. Thank you, NEGEF, for your support and mentoring!

SAVE THE DATE:  Saturday, June 15, 12-5pm, for our 2013 Celebration of Magazine Beach

This year’s event will feature a picnic, a procession of children (as butterflies and birds), music, art, performance, learn-to-row lessons, too! More about this soon.

Even More News…

Magazine Beach Booth at the 5.18 Central Square World’s Fair

A model citizen picks up trash and deposits it in one of the NEWLY PLACED trash cans in the park.

Last night the team who are just completing the Historic Structure Report for the 1818 Powder Magazine presented their findings and offered ideas for the building’s next use. To see the presentation, go to: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/news/publicmeetings/parklandspast.htm

Big News: DCR reported that the Historic Structure Report (HSR) will be released by the end of this month; and the roof repair design will be completed, reviewed, and ready for bid by the end of July.  So the old-granite block building at Magazine Beach Park will have a new roof by 2014 and, possibly, sooner.

DCR’s Director of Cultural Resources Patrice Kish, who is leading this project, introduced partners Charles Sullivan of the Cambridge Historical Commission and Cathie Zusy of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association. Working together, the three groups are working to stabilize the Magazine.

The HSR provides a road map for moving forward. It documents the historical development of a building; identifies significant historical features; determines preservation priorities; and provides prioritized treatment recommendations.

Historical researcher Nina Cohen shared the social history of the building, including discussion of:

• The need to store gunpowder in a secure location far from settlement;
• The need for strict rules regarding its storage and transport;
• The high pay Keeper Peter Tufts received;
• The removal of powder from the Magazine in the 1860s and its becoming a ruin, thanks in part to young boys who scavenged copper nails there, contributing to the roof’s collapse;
•  The conversion of the building into a bathhouse for Magazine Beach bathers in 1899, when it was a popular river swimming beach.

Building sleuth William Finch spoke about how the building has changed over time, with variations in walls, roofs, windows and doors as the space transformed from storage facility, to ruin, bathhouse, renovated bathhouse, storage shed and maintenance shed.

Architect Steve McAlister then explained why the old granite building was significant—that it was on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the oldest and most important buildings in the Charles River Basin Historic District.

The HSR proposes that the building be renovated to its 1919 appearance, when a roof was added to the northern addition to the bathhouse to cover showers, toilets, an office, and an area for swimsuit and towel rentals. Full drawings exist for this period and it allows us to keep the addition of the building and the windows and doors, allowing light into what was once a very dark structure.

Possible uses for the building include:

• stabilizing the building as an historic feature of the park, with no use;
• using it as a DCR operations support building;
• rehabilitating it as an interpretative center;
• leasing it to a 3^rd party vendor, possibly as a concession, meeting area (for art, craft and programs), and/or rentals (for bikes and boats).

Once completed, the HSR will be posted on the DCR’s website. Paper copies of it will also be available at the Cambridge Historical Commission and at the Central Square and Main Branch of the Cambridge Public Library.

DCR’s Director of Partnerships Conrad Crawford closed the meeting, welcoming further collaboration.