Magazine Beach

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.

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?