Magazine Beach

State Rep. Marty Walz and the CNA’s Cathie Zusy receive distinguished service awards from the Charles River Conservancy

Last evening, just before River Sing, the Charles River Conservancy recognized volunteers for their efforts to preserve our parklands. Among those who received awards were State Rep. Marty Walz, who has championed our work at Magazine Beach, and me, Cathie Zusy of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association. Many thanks to all of you who have participated in our cleanups and celebrations and to the Charles River Conservancy for their stewardship of our river parklands. Working with DCR and the Riverside Boat Club, we are on our way to transforming the park, powder magazine and all.

Gunpowder from vessels in Boston harbor and for militia use was once stored in this 1818 granite block building at Magazine Beach–named for the gun powder magazine–in Cambridge. DCR has just contracted Clark & Green to do an historic structure report that will document the building’s physical condition and history and recommend how best to stabilize, restore, rehabilitate and reuse it.

Since November 2010, the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association has been working to revitalize Magazine Beach with several partners: Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Historical Commission, and DCR.  ”The structure is deteriorating and I’ve long wanted it to be restored,” noted Charles Sullivan, Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission. “This ancient granite block building is historically and architecturally significant, and adds character to Cambridge’s second largest park.”

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation has awarded a contract to Clark & Green Architecture Design of Great Barrington, Mass., to produce an Historic Structure Report for the 1818 powder magazine at Magazine Beach. Steve McCalister will serve as lead architect for this project, working in association with the structural engineer John Wathne, William Finch, an architectural conservator, and Nina Cohen, a historian. The report will document the physical condition of the building; its history and use; assess the building’s structural integrity; determine preservation priorities; recommend how best to stabilize, restore, and rehabilitate the structure; and propose reuse options.

Clark & Green have worked successfully with DCR on several projects, including the Charles River Reservation Speedway Building in Brighton, Mass. and the Mt. Greylock Visitors’ Center and Summit House at Joseph Skinner State Park.

This study will build on the 2011-2012 historic research undertaken by Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen, the 2012 CNA survey results (forthcoming), and the 2009 report, “Powder House Revitalization: An Integrated Approach” by Harvard graduate students Masako Ikegami and Paul Laszlo.

The study will be funded by a $25,000 Community Preservation Act grant from the City of Cambridge matched 2:1 by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the guardians of the park.  Remaining funds will be used in 2013 to help stabilize and reroof the powder magazine. For more information about revitalization efforts, contact Cathie Zusy at cathzusy@gmail.com or Patrice Kish at patrice.kish@state.ma.us.

[For further information about the history of Magazine Beach and about our efforts there, go to the Boston Globe’s recent article: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2012/10/_few_joggers_or_passersby.html]

While DOT has some cleaning up to do, our long vista of green has been restored.

Where did the summer go?

Our Veterans Memorial Swimming Pool will reopen next June!

Fourteen people volunteered from Cambridge Associates on Friday, August 24th to clean up Magazine Beach.  They helped fix some benches that were in desperate need of repair.  Thank you to David Rosen of North Bennet Street School for helping us fix the benches and to DCR for donating the paint and wood.  

Cambridge Associates also weeded the garden bed in front of the pool house and did a great job planting flowers from Mahoney’s Garden Center.  We want to thank Mahoney’s for giving us a discount on the flowers that we purchased!

Thank you to all for your help!
Danielle Stehlik, Charles River Conservancy, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator

“Autumn, Magazine Beach, Cambridge” by Nicholas Read

During August local artists will share moments in time at Magazine Beach—the second largest park in Cambridge—at the Central Square Library. “Nature and History in Our Midst” includes artwork by Gary Blau, Jeff Gardner, Nicholas Read, Peter Valentine and Jason Peter Williams.

In 1889, inspired by the creation of the new water “park on the Boston side of the river,” D. A. Buckley petitioned for the City of Cambridge to purchase the flats between Brookline Bridge (now BU bridge) and Pleasant Streets, including Captain’s Island, to create a park and playground for the young (Cambridge Chronicle6 April 1889). In the following years the City bought the land and hired the Olmsted Brothers to convert the 1818 powder magazine there into a bathhouse for men and boys. In the early 1900s Magazine Beach was a favorite swimming spot along the Charles, refreshing as many as 60,000 bathers each summer.

“Old Magazine” by Jeff Gardner

“Evening Clouds” by Jason Peter Williams

“Under the Canopy” by Gary Blau

“The Cambridge Geese” cards by Peter Valentine

Twenty-seven months and $3.6 million dollars later, the new pedestrian footbridge connecting Cambridgeport safely to Magazine Beach is officially completed and open for use. The temporary traffic light at Magazine St. and Memorial Dr. is gone, as is one of the construction trailers. The other trailer will be gone within a few weeks—after finals repairs to the east upper truss on the BU Bridge.

About this project, see: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/projects/pdf/Magazine%20Beach%20Ped%20Bridge%202.24.09.pdf

Magazine Beach Cleanup, 9am-12 noon

Led by CRC Volunteer Coordinator, Danielle Stehlik . Please RSVP at dms@thecharles.org so there will be enough tools and gloves for all participants!

Tour of “Captain’s Island, now known as Magazine Beach,” 10:30-11:30 am

Meet at the powder magazine. This Cambridge Discovery Day tour will be led by scholars Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen. Questions? Contact Nina at ninascohen@yahoo.com.

Tour Description: Over the centuries, Magazine Beach has had many incarnations. Surrounded by salt marshes and oyster beds, it became a military lookout in the 1600s and 1700s; a secure and isolated location for the storage of gun powder in the 1800s; and a popular bathing area in the 1900s–that is, until it was closed due to concerns about polio and pollution in 1947. Learn about mercenary Captain Daniel Patrick who was granted the island in 1636, and about surveyor Peter Tufts, Jr. who with his son served as keepers for the 1818 powder magazine. It was the Olmsted Brothers (of Emerald Necklace fame), themselves, who turned this fifteen-acre parcel into an urban park in the late 1890s as the people of Cambridge longed for a water park and playgrounds for the young.

This tour will be repeated on Saturday, August 11^th, 10:30-11:30am. For information about other Cambridge Discovery Day tours, go to: www.cambridgema.gov/historic/walks.html.

Below: July 5th the Creative Action Project girls painted the railings under the new pedestrian footbridge and picked up trash. Thank you CAP girls and to Danielle Stehlik, too, for organizing the event and taking the photos.