Magazine Beach

DCR’s Patrice Kish, and neighbors Eric and Lauren Spengler and Marty Blatt, discuss next uses for the powder magazine.

About 50 adults, children and dogs stopped by the Powder Magazine to look inside and imagine what its next use might be on Saturday, despite the weather. Among the ideas shared for the space were:

Restaurant—seasonal—looking out onto an improved tot lot, with ice cream and cold drinks

Boathouse—kayaks, canoes, rowboats and sailboats (whatever floats!)

Community art space (performances, gallery and gardens)

Art studio

Indoor/outdoor exercise and fitness and equipment rentals for fields

Many thanks to DCR’s Patrice Kish for organizing this event and to Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen for being there to share the story of the building and site.

Remember to come to the Morse School (40 Granite St.) auditorium this Thursday, May 16 at 6:30pm for the presentation of the social and architectural history of the 1818 powder magazine and discussion of its next use. Learn about the rich history of the building and site and share your thoughts for it!

Note: Our open house was part of DCR’s celebration of Preservation Month. Go to www.mass.gov/dcr to read about other events being held all over the State! This year’s theme is “Stories in Stone.”

Please join us at the Powder Magazine from 12-3:30pm today, Saturday, May 11. We will be there UNTIL/IF it starts raining heavily. So come early!

Patrice Kish of DCR, historians Nina Cohen and Marilyn Wellons, and I will all be there. It will be a great opportunity to look around, learn about the building and site, and to share you ideas for the next use of the building. Also why not share your Magazine Beach memories?

Powder Magazine Open House

Saturday, May 11, 2013 12:00-3:30pm

at Magazine Beach Park (Memorial Drive, Cambridge)

As part of Preservation Month, DCR will open our 1818 Powder Magazine for touring! From the DCR brochure:

DCR’s Magazine Beach is named after the historic Powder Magazine located on the shore of the Charles River. Built in 1818 for storage of gunpowder for the Massachusetts Militia, the building was converted into a bathhouse as part of the Olmsted plan for Magazine Beach in 1899. Vacant and underutilized for many years, DCR is now partnering with the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association on a Historic Structures Report which will guide the building’s long term preservation. Local historians will be on hand to share the rich history of the Powder Magazine with visitors.

Also: As one of the state’s oldest and most active preservation organizations, DCR is steward to 12,000 years of human history, nearly a half million acres of land, and 2,000 cultural resources including 100+ National Register-listed properties and 8 National Historic Landmarks. Visit our website to see the complete DCR Preservation Month program http://www.mass.gov/dcr/.

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Public Meeting on Draft Historic Structure Report for the Powder Magazine

at Magazine Beach

Thursday, May 16, 2013, 6:30 – 8:00pm

in the Morse School Auditorium (40 Granite Street, Cambridge)

At this public meeting, DCR, the City of Cambridge Historical Commission, and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association will present, and solicit public input on, a Draft Historic Structures Report for the Powder Magazine at Magazine Beach in Cambridge.  This report will guide future capital improvements and reuse of the structure.

If you have questions about the public meeting, please call 617-626-4974 or email DCR.Updates@state.ma.us.

Cathie Zusy, Dick Garver, Senator Anthony Petruccelli, and Marge Amster at Magazine Beach today. Renata von Tscharner of the Charles River Conservancy also joined us.

We had a great meeting with Senator Anthony Petruccelli at Magazine Beach today. It was sunny and warm and many had gathered at the park to celebrate the day. We walked the grounds and talked about the history of the site and its great potential. Why not have a beautiful fifteen-acre park along the Charles River in Cambridge?

Next week we will meet with DCR’s Commissioner Edward Lambert, Jr., Mayor Henrietta Davis, and our Deputy City Manager Richard Rossi in Senator Petruccelli’s office. To figure out: how to actualize this green resource. Certainly, we can do it if we work together. Below are photos of the park today, with a focus on flaws—all very correctible!

Thank you to Sen. Petruccelli, Comm. Lambert, Deputy City Manager Rossi, and Mayor Davis for making improvements at Magazine Beach a priority.

Sunken pavement that could be a great lawn.

A dead play structure.

A broken wading pool.

An historically significant building with holes in the roof and lots of graffiti.

A wall of vegetation that blocks all visual access to the river. (I took this photo last week before the cleanup. Thank goodness for the cleanup. The biggest complaint about Magazine Beach is the trash that is everywhere. Since there are no trash cans out at the park, it is already refilling with litter.)

Trees that need pruning.

Picnic tables and benches in need of repair.

Area 4 Junior Youth Empowerment Program ready for action.

There was great energy at the Earth Day Magazine Beach Cleanup yesterday, with over 60 volunteers at work making the place look much better. Thanks to the Area 4 Junior Youth Empowerment Program, the Riverside Boat Club, the Charles River Conservancy, the CRLS students, the many neighborhood folks, and Starbucks volunteers who assisted. Thanks are also due to DCR for whisking the trash away and for fixing several of the benches in the park!

Starbucks, thanks for sponsoring the cleanup and providing the hot coffee, t-shirts, and Starbucks Community Volunteers. Thanks also to the Charles River Watershed Association, who organize the overall, whole Charles River, Earth Day Cleanup. Our event was part of the larger one, which draws thousands of volunteers each April to clean up the riverbanks.

Along with liquor bottles, broken glass, cans, bottle caps and cigarette butts, we found a lot of strange things, including:  a man’s formal black shoe, a trench coat, a frying pan, a big bike lock, a corded telephone, hubcaps, headphones, VHS cassettes, and the plate from dumbbell…

We couldn’t have had a more beautiful day!

Youth empowerment in action!

Carl, one of Magazine Beach’s regulars, cleans up around the powder magazine.

Hibih and Sophia from CRL in the bush. Lots of trash there…

DCR at work fixing benches.

All the way from Dorchester, this group helped us last year, too!

Andy and David and but one of our trash mounds.

Some guys will go to extra lengths to remove litter.

Brian Campbell triumphant.

Cambridgeport neighbor Brian Campbell trash proud.

Over 60 volunteered. Thanks to Starbucks for sponsoring our event.

Niles and fellow rower from the Riverside Boat Club, also triumphant.

CNA Board Member Olivia Fiske and DCR’s Director of Partnerhips Conrad Crawford, both at the park, pitching in.

Today’s Earth Day Cleanup postponed due to Friday’s lockdown–If you haven’t already, please sign up TODAY for the Saturday, April 27th, 9-12noon, Earth Day Cleanup. This year, Starbucks is partnering with us at Magazine Beach and it’s likely that they’ll sponsor us per volunteer. So your volunteering will help us twice: once with the park cleanup and a second time with a possible corporate donation.

Signing up is a 2-step process. Please persevere. We need you!

1. Register as a community volunteer at: community.starbucks.com.

2. Register for the event, itself: http://community.starbucks.com/groups/charles-river-earth-day-cleanup-at-magazine-beach

Meet us in front of the Riverside Boat Club on Saturday morning. The Charles River Conservancy will provide gloves, tools and assignments. Hoping for a beautiful, sunny day…

This is where and when it all started. The CNA organized its first cleanup of Magazine Beach with partners the CRC and RBC in November 2010! We’ve come a long way since then.

Earth Day Cleanup–Please remember to sign up TODAY for the Saturday, April 20th, 9-12noon, Earth Day Cleanup. This year, Starbucks is partnering with us at Magazine Beach and it’s likely that they’ll sponsor us per volunteer. So your volunteering will help us twice: once with the park cleanup and a second time with a possible corporate donation.

Signing up is a 2-step process. Please persevere. We need you!

1. Register as a community volunteer at: community.starbucks.com.

2. Register for the event, itself: http://community.starbucks.com/groups/charles-river-earth-day-cleanup-at-magazine-beach

Meet us in front of the Riverside Boat Club on Saturday morning. The Charles River Conservancy will provide gloves, tools and assignments. So far 15 people have volunteered to assist. We’ll need at least 5 more to qualify for Starbucks funds, so PLEASE sign-up today.

HSR Presentation and Powder Magazine Open House–Coming soon: May dates for a public meeting presentation of the Historic Structure Report for our 1818 Powder Magazine, and an open house for it, too.

Small Powder Magazine Exhibit at the Cambridge Public Library–A key to the powder magazine and the historic photo, “The Old Magazine,” will both be on view on the 2^nd floor of the Main Library until April 15. Check it out! See CPL Archivist Alyssa Pacy’s blog posts about it here and here, too.

Donations, Please–Many thanks to all who have contributed to the stabilization of this historic structure. About 100 neighbors have donated so far. We’ve raised almost $10,000 that we’re hoping DCR will match 2:1. If you haven’t made your tax-deductible contribution yet, please do. Send a check made out to “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc.” (note: for powder magazine stabilization) to: CNA Treasurer Jay Shetterly at 127 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

We Need Contributions of Talent, Too–We are grateful for the outpouring of support to revitalize Magazine Beach. How can you help? We need assistance with grant writing, social media, graphic design, photography, editing, etc. Please let me know: Cathie Zusy, CNA Board Member, cathzusy@gmail.com or 617-868-0489.

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook!– www.facebook.com/magazinebeach

That’s it for now….

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Thank you to the seventy or so who joined us Sunday evening at Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway’s for a very upbeat fundraiser featuring DCR’s Director of Cultural Resources, Patrice Kish; The Cambridge Historical Commission’s Ex. Director Charles Sullivan; Cambridge’s Director of Community Planning, Stuart Dash; and historic building expert Bill Finch, who’s working on the historic structure report for the powder magazine.  The presenters shared a rendering of the powder magazine as we think it was originally and of what it could be come next. Sullivan also shared a newly discovered image of the 1818 powder magazine—without roof—found in the Cambridge Historical Society collection. Let us stabilize the building and fix the roof before the structure is reduced to a ruin once more!

The Old Magazine, 1890s
Courtesy of the Cambridge Historical Society, Old Cambridge Photographic Club Collection

Recent CRLS graduate Augie Cummings debuted his five-minute film, “Magazine Beach,” starring Cambridge historians Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen and landscape architect Bertha Pantoja. The film, just below, presents the history of Magazine Beach and it possibilities. Thank you to the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund for funding this project.

What a lovely gathering of community around a cause—to make improvements to our local park. We’re starting first with the powder magazine. Sullivan has said it is the oldest and possibly the most significant building on the Charles River Basin.

It’s not too late to make a donation. Send checks to CNA Board Member Olivia Fiske at 131 Magazine St., #2, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Photographs of the party by Mason D. Cox.

Save these dates:

PARTY! Sunday, March 24, 5-7pm

Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway (175 Chestnut St.) will host a fundraiser to restore the historic powder magazine at Magazine Beach: the first step to revitalizing the park. Join us for wine, hors d’oeuvres and good conversation along with updates on the historic structure report and the debut of Cambridgeport’s own Augie Cummings’ film “Magazine Beach.” $35 per person. Make checks out to the “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc.,” noting: “for powder magazine restoration.”  Mail them to CNA Board Member Olivia Fiske at 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

Sign up NOW for the Earth Day Cleanup, Saturday, April 20, 9am-12noon

The 14th annual Earth Day Cleanup is less than a month away. To register, click here. This year, Starbucks is partnering with us at Magazine Beach. It’s likely that they’ll sponsor us per volunteer, so by participating, you will be helping us twice: once with the cleanup and a second time with a possible corporate donation. Thank you, you, and thank you, Starbucks!

Public Meeting to Present Historic Structure Report for the Powder Magazine and to Discuss Potential Reuse Options, TBD, in late April or early May

The Historic Structure Report is being finalized and DCR will be scheduling a meeting in late April or early May to present findings to the community and to discuss potential reuse options. Stay tuned!