Magazine Beach

Winter at Magazine Beach

Last night the City Council approved the City Manager’s recommendation to appropriate $600k for shoreline and Powder Magazine patio improvements at the park. Huzzah! This is FABULOUS news because it will inspire the State, once again, to invest at Magazine Beach.

As you know, the Mass. Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) is responsible for almost a half million acres and its current funding is at 89% of its 2009 level. To make improvements at the park, DCR needs partners. And the City of Cambridge has been an excellent one.

Look for a ribbon cutting at the canoe/kayak launch late this spring, and soon thereafter, a groundbreaking and construction along the river and around the Magazine.

Below: a rendering of Phase II-1.

DCR celebrated the distribution of $900,000 of Partnership Matching Funds with its park partners yesterday at the State House. Among them were us–Magazine Beach Partners, represented by Decia Goodwin and Cathie Zusy.

With us in the photo above are, L to R, DCR’s Comm. Leo Roy, Senator Joe Boncore, Representative Jay Livingstone and Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton.

Thank you, DCR, and thank you, Cambridge. Cambridge CPA funds will match these dollars. Look for an improved shoreline path, additional seating, open views of the river, and native plantings later this spring and summer.

Rendering of expanded Magazine patio, new terrace & additional wall seating.

Imagine.

• An improved and more accessible shoreline path, healthy native vegetation, new seating and trees; and
• An expanded patio and new terrace and seating wall at the Powder Magazine.

These improvements will make the park an even better place to gather, engage with nature, and relax, AND they will help DCR to attract a stronger community-oriented tenant to the Magazine.

And then, Contribute. Help realize the dream.

Make your check out to: “Magazine Beach Partners”

Mail it to: MBP Treasurer Marge Amster, 10 McTernan St., Cambridge, MA 02139

OR make your tax-deductible gift here. 

Why?

As one donor wrote us: As I drive around Boston, the Cape, and other territories I always think about our growing population (225M when I was a boy to 320M today), and how so many waterfronts, both salt and fresh, have been claimed for private exclusive use. I think of how important it is for all of us to have access to water, not just for recreation and the health of our bodies, but for the health of our souls.  Magazine Beach is such a great opportunity and will be the jewel of the Charles. — Bill Donaldson

• Also, anonymous donors have pledged to match up to $10,000 of gifts donated by December 31, 2018.  
• And, since we have no staff costs, 100% of your donation will go to the park itself.

We are so grateful for your support! Cathie Zusy for Magazine Beach Partners (Want to see what we’ve been up to? Click here:  MB Partners Annual Report 2018.)

Big, green open spaces encourage us to run, play, relax, and commune. A toast: to our 17 acres at Magazine Beach and the refreshment and possibilities they invite.

Please join us at this Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7pm, at LBJ Apartments (150 Erie St.) for our first-ever annual meeting of Magazine Beach Partners. Learn more about our plans, progress, programs and finances. We’ll be introducing Phase II-1–coming soon! Refreshments will follow.

Speakers will include:

• DCR’s Director of External Affairs & Partnerships Jennifer Norwood & Sr. Planner (and Magazine Beach Project Director) Rick Corsi;
• Cambridge’s Taha Jennings, Asst. to the City Manager; &
• Magazine Beach Partners board members.

Here is our annual report: MB Partners Annual Report 2018.

DCR, thanks for fixing the 9 broken benches, mulching around the trees, and adding ADA curb ramps at the corners of the parking crescent and across Memorial Drive at the foot of Magazine St. This will make it safer for cyclists, too.Last Friday, the Charles River Conservancy led 60 Ernst & Young volunteers in sanding and painting the benches, cutting ragweed and phragmite seed heads and planting bulbs in front of the bathhouse. And Saturday, another 60 volunteers from MIT (Phi Beta Epsilon) and BU (Delta Sigma Pi) came out in the rain and cut more seed heads and picked up trash. Head of the Charles volunteers were also on site, cutting down the blue indigo along the shoreline so that HOC rowers can have access to the river—THIS COMING WEEKEND!  Thank you, all!

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Our summer programs have delighted children and adults alike year after year. Here magician Bonaparte connects with a fan. MIT was lead sponsor in 2018.

MIT has been a contributor to summer programs since 2015, and this past year was both lead sponsor for summer programs and a lead sponsor for our Sept. 16 Benefit Party. In addition to contributing money—always nice—they’ve put their students to work for us. In 2013, MIT students in City to City, drafted our initial strategic plan, created an exhibit for us, and set up our Facebook page. Thanks, MIT, for believing in us and in the importance of this 17-acre riverside park.

The new rafter tails, with old longleaf heart pine donated by Longleaf Lumber in 2014.

Longleaf Lumber bailed us out in 2014, when the new pressure-treated pine rafter tails ordered for the Powder Magazine arrived cracked and twisted. In their place, Longleaf donated some old growth rough-sawn longleaf heart pine that was perfect and true. (These were repurposed posts from the old Crocker Paper Mill in Holyoke, MA.) Now, for the shoreline renovation of the park, they have donated some old live oak timbers to use as seating. (The logs were salvaged from the Charlestown Navy Yard. A few are currently being used as seating at Walden Pond, Fresh Pond, and on the Cambridge Common.) Look for these logs along the newly improved path next year.

Young readers enjoy an old log Longleaf Lumber salvaged from the Charlestown Navy Yard–now a bench at Walden Pond.

The revitalization of Magazine Beach is happening because of State, City, individual, business and foundation investment in this public space—through private-public partnership. MIT and Longleaf Lumber have lead the way and we applaud and appreciate their engagement.

City Council Votes Another $155k of CPA Funds for Park & DCR will Match This

Thrilling news: Monday night City Council voted to accept the CPA Committee’s recommendations to invest another $155k+ into shoreline improvements and DCR will match this! After the canoe/kayak launch is completed this fall, look for activity from the launch (at the east end of the park) to the Powder Magazine (at its center): an improved river path, invasive plant removal, and new native plants, views, and seating.

Biogen and Charles River Cleanup Project Volunteers Pitch In

Last Friday 40 Biogen volunteers dug out phragmites and cut off ragweed seed heads in the eastern swale, weeded around the Powder Magazine, and picked up trash and branches. This was part of Biogen Cares Deeply Day, when over 800 Biogen employees engaged in service around the Boston area. Thanks for making Magazine Beach a more inviting destination, Biogen!

And this Sunday, Cambridge Rindge & Latin high school students helped us prepare the Powder Magazine and park for the Benefit. They set up the canopies, lights, tables, chairs, balloons and decorations, and weeded, picked up trash, and moved mulch. Thanks for making the Powder Magazine magical! The Charles River Cleanup Project engages in cleanups along the river; they are stewards of the watershed.

Sunday was gorgeous–a last taste of summer before the fall–and over 150 gathered at the newly renovated 1818 Powder Magazine to celebrate both it and all the great things happening at the park. Over the past year, DCR has completed the work on the Magazine, installed a spray deck, removed the broken wading pool and reseeded the lawn. They are now building a canoe/kayak launch and outlook. This summer, over 13,000 people used the pool, while countless others splashed at the spray deck and picnicked under the shade trees.

There’s more! Magazine Beach Partners held over 25 summer events, drawing almost 1,400 participants.  We mounted temporary interpretative markers about the watershed and published spring and summer editions of Nature Notes @ Magazine Beach. And  in collaboration with the Charles River Conservancy, Charles River Watershed Association and Riverside Boat Club, we helped organize over a dozen invasive removals and cleanups.

All of this is happening because of partnerships, and that—a celebration of partnership—was the  theme of Sunday’s event. It is with the State, City and community working together, with the help of local businesses and foundations, that we’re moving ahead. See photos of an enchanted evening below. We raised nearly $28,000 at the event!

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Come join us for dinner, drinks and live music Sunday, Sept. 16, 6-8pm—at the restored Powder Magazine! (Rain location also magical: Riverside Boat Club.) Celebrate progress at the park and toast the future. Music by Best Ever Chicken and great speakers and MC, too.

Pause to celebrate recent improvements at the park:

• A new spray deck
• A restored Powder Magazine—the oldest structure on the river!
• A new picnicking lawn (where there once was a broken wading pool)
• A canoe/kayak launch and outlook—in the works…
  None of this would have happened without your support.

Buy your tickets NOW!
Tickets are $75/pp or $125 for 2 and tax deductible.
Make checks out to: Magazine Beach Partners, Inc.
Mail them to: Marge Amster, MBPs Treasurer, 10 McTernan St., Cambridge, MA 02139 or pay on Paypal at magazinebeach.org.