Magazine Beach

Hundreds of people celebrated the 4^th at Magazine Beach yesterday. Many extended families gathered. Some have picnicked here for three, four and five generations. These include the Green, Thompson, Cooley, White, Bridgeman, Headley and Jarvis families. While many of these families are from Cambridge, others are from further away, including Boston, Allston, Mattapan and Waltham.

There was a cool breeze along the river and spirits were high. Children splashed in the pool and the smells of grilled burgers and fried chicken and sounds of laughter and conviviality filled our local “resort.”

DCR Awarded the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association with $50k for the powder magazine at Magazine Beach and the City of Cambridge $30k for new benches along the Charles River.
Pictured left to right: DCR Commissioner Edward M. Lambert, Jr., CNA Board Member Cathie Zusy, Cambridge’s Director of Community Planning Stuart Dash, DCR’s Director of Partnerships Conrad Crawford and Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rick Sullivan.

DCR’s $50k will match the $25k that the City of Cambridge allocated in September 2011. This money will be spent to commission an historical structure report to guide restoration and interpretative efforts and to begin to fix the roof. Patrice Kish, DCR’s Director of Cultural Resourcees, will oversee the project in partnership with the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association and the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Here’s the latest from DCR:

Veterans Memorial Swimming and Wading Pool

(Magazine Beach), 719 Memorial Dr., (617) 354-9381

Opens June 23 – August 26

Open Swim Hours: 11am – 7pm

The New England Grassroots Environmental Fund has awarded the CNA $1,500 to further our work at Magazine Beach. This money will be used to provide a modest stipend to local historians Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen, who have been researching the site to inform preservation efforts at the 1818 powder magazine and future interpretation of the park.  It will also provide a small stipend to filmmakers Jennifer Malin, of Harvard University, and to Augie Cummings, of Cambridge Rindge & Latin. Together, they will produce a short film about the rich history and potential of the fifteen-acre park. We are grateful to the NEGEF for their support for this project. This is their second grant to the CNA. In April 2011, they awarded us $4,000.  Thank you NEGEF!

Spring is in the air at Magazine Beach.

May 17^th, 83 Novartis volunteers worked 9am-2pm to:

• cut back the overgrown bushes along the river;
• remove growth from the fence around the pool;
• pick up trash and broken glass;
• weed in front of the bathhouse;
• paint the perimeter fence; and
• rake leaves.

A hearty thanks to Novartis for giving Magazine Beach a much needed makeover and to Danielle Stehlik, Volunteer Coordinator at the Charles River Conservancy, for coordinating this project. Photos by Danielle.

We had a great turnout for the 13^th Annual Earth Day Cleanup at Magazine Beach today. Among those contributing were the Riverside Boat Club, the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Whole Foods, and the Diamond Girlz—the latter, motorcyclists from Rhode Island, Marlborough, West Roxbury, Quincy and Boston. While it still looks scruffy, Magazine Beach is much, much neater.

Many thanks to the volunteers who gave their morning to cleanup our park, to Starbucks for the coffee, and to the organizing institutions: the Charles River Watershed Association, Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club and Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association.

Photos courtesy of Pascal David, Maria Lane and Cathie Zusy

On Tuesday April 17, Ph.D student Chris Maio, Associate Professor Allen Gontz, and I (all from UMass Boston) conducted a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of Magazine Beach, under the supervision of Department of Conservation and Recreation archaeologist Ellen Berkland. We crisscrossed the park with the GPR equipment, creating a digital record of the layers of sediment that make up the park. 

We hope that studying the data from this survey will help us see what the area may have looked like before it was made into a park, when much of the area of Magazine Beach and the soccer and baseball fields was probably tidal mudflat. We have not yet analyzed the data, but it is clear from initial examination that the area has changed significantly due to human actions, and it will be interesting to map the park as it was a few hundred years ago, before these changes took place.

-Lars Anderas, masters student in Environmental Science at UMass Boston

Meet in front of the Riverside Boat Club. Goodies, drinks, work gloves,
t-shirts (for those who signed up for them), and garbage bags will all be there.

Organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Riverside Boat Club, Charles River Conservancy and the Charles River Watershed Association

Photos from last June’s cleanup