Magazine Beach

Updated: 7.11.2104

Note: No lessons Monday, July 14th.

DCR is offering FREE swim lessons for children from ages 6 to 96 at the Magazine Beach pool starting Monday, July 7^th. Sign up NOW at the pool, itself. (You can’t register by phone or e-mail.) You can still join in and drop ins are welcome!

Children’s lessons are Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Level 1: Introduction to Water Skills,  at 9:30am

Level 2: Fundamental Aquatic Skills,  at 10am

(Cancelled until enrollment: Level 3: Stroke Development, at 10:30am)

Adult lessons are Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30am.

The Veterans Memorial Swimming Pool at 719 Memorial Dr., Cambridge, MA 02139 (at Magazine Beach) is open daily June 28 – August 24, from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

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Almost 100 neighbors and friends joined us Sunday night at our Benefit Party for Magazine Beach Park. Riverside’s powerful rowers removed their erg machines and transformed the second floor of their 1912 club into the social hall it was earlier in the century. Best Ever Chicken (parts) serenaded us from the original bandstand. A cool breeze blew through the club and the balcony, with its colorful hanging baskets of flowers, offered amazing views of the Charles River. Food and drink were superb.

Riverside Boat Club (RBC) historian Richard Garver shared a brief history of the club and Senator Anthony Petruccelli, DCR’s Director of External Partnerships Conrad Crawford, and Ex. Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission Charles Sullivan each shared a few words.

Here are quips of their speeches:

About the Riverside Boat Club: 

About the History of the Powder Magazine and Captain’s Island: 

About Senator Petruccelli’s efforts to make see improvements at the park: 

About DCR’s efforts at Magazine Beach: 

Each has been critical to moving this project forward. Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association President Bill August thanked and recognized City officials: Dennis Carlone, Tim Toomey, Nadeem Mazen, Fred Fantini and emeritus Minka van Beuzekom and Alice Turkel. Magazine Beach Committee Chair Cathie Zusy thanked Sanofi, lead sponsor for 2014 summer programs, and partners the Riverside Boat Club and Charles River Conservancy. Zusy also introduced and thanked party organizers Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway, and CNA board members Olivia Fiske, Jay Shetterly, Marge Amster, Colleen Clark, Leslie Greis and Bill August, who with Richard Garver of the RBC, Brian Conway, Decia Goodwin, Tom Scanlon and Tori Cheah, are leading park improvement efforts.

Many thanks to all who joined us and to the many others who made donations in-kind or in cash. TRILL Foods and Whole Foods—delicious treats, cheeses and veggies. Thank you. Rowing together, we are making Magazine Beach a nicer park!

Photographs courtesy of Michael Schaffer (above) and Julie O’Neil (below). Thanks also to Werner Grundl for his videos. For a fuller account of the evening, see

Mary Holbrow’s article for CCTV Neighborhood Media.

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Magazine Beach awaits. Why drive for hours when you can vacation right here? The FREE pool opens tomorrow, Saturday, June 28,11am-7pm; it’ll be open through August 24th. And there’s a cool breeze along the river…

And don’t forget our Benefit Party for Magazine Beach Park at the Riverside Boat Club Sunday, June 29th, 7-9pm. Tickets are $35 per person and tax deductible. Purchase them on Eventbrite or pay at the door. It’s going to be a beautiful evening on the river. Show your support for improvements to our local park and salute the sunset from this haven for Olympic rowers.  See you there!

Remember to purchase your tickets now for Sunday’s Benefit Party for Magazine Beach at the Riverside Boat Club! Gorgeous weather is predicted. You could be a raising your glass on the balcony as the sun sets over the Charles, savoring Jay Shetterly’s famous chicken wings, Whole Foods’ luscious cheeses, Trill’s delicious desserts, and more. And all to the tunes of (parts of ) Best Ever Chicken’s bluegrass. The Riverside Boat Club is usually filled with focused, committed, athletic and ambitious rowers working out as they prepare for competition. Sunday those strong rowers will be moving their erg rowing machines aside to make way for this community celebration and benefit for programming and improvements to our 15-acre riverside park. Please join us!

Benefit Party at the Riverside Boat Club, Sunday, July 29, 7-9pm, at 769 Memorial Drive (to the right of the swimming pool and across from Starbucks)

Tickets are $35 per person, and tax-deductible!

Please make checks payable to: Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc. Note: For Magazine Beach Revitalization.  Mail them to: Magazine Beach Committee, CNA, c/o Olivia Fiske, 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139.

Or purchase tickets on Eventbrite. Questions? Contact Cathie at cathzusy@gmail.com.

Tickets will also be available at the door, but we’ll be able to plan better if we know in advance that you are coming.

At 15 acres, Magazine Beach Park is Cambridge’s second largest park. A DCR property, it needs a new playground, water feature for children, benches and a great lawn to replace sunken pavement. Please help us to make these improvements!

The CNA has organized a full program of free activities at the park this summer, including a Family Summer Kick-off, Saturday morning yoga, Friday night concert picnics, and more. Hope to see you at the beach this summer, Magazine Beach!

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Over 300 turned out at Magazine Beach Park last night for a perfect almost summer evening of picnicking, music, games and art. Neighbor Ken Field’s New Orleans Mardi Gras band the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble created a fun and funky ambience for picnickers as children delighted in Knucklebones’ very fun assortment of games and amusements. Whole Foods fed the crowd, first with their food truck, and then, later, with an unplanned feast—courtesy of the River Street store. Thank you, Whole Foods! Frosty’s provided ice cream. What could be better? To top it off, artists Ross Miller and friends marked the shoreline of Captain’s Island with little blue flags and artist Susan Israel marked, with stencilled fish, where the water may rise in 2050 and 2100. (Turn off your lights. Vacation at your local park. Let’s preserve our planet!)

Thank you to Tom Scanlon for playing a lead role in organizing and getting the word out about this event and to the many others who made it happen. This was the first of a full program of activities organized for Magazine Beach Park. This summer, come vacation at the beach, Magazine Beach!

Note: Our next event will be next Sunday, June 29^th, a benefit party to raise funds for programming in the park and park revitalization, at the Riverside Boat Club—the training grounds for many an Olympic rower. Please join us for wine, hors d’oeuvres, great conversation, river views, and live music! Tickets are $35 per person and tax deductible. Please make checks payable to: Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc. Note: For Magazine Beach Revitalization. Mail them to: Magazine Beach Committee, CNA, c/o Olivia Fiske, 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Or purchase tickets on Eventbrite.

All of these events have been organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., with partners the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Arts and the Cambridge Historical Commission. Our sponsors are Sanofi, Knucklebones and the Charles River Conservancy.

For a video of the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble performing at Magazine Beach click here.

Join us Friday, June 20, 5-8pm, for live music, children’s games organized by Knucklebones. and art installations that you help create! Bring a picnic and enjoy the almost longest day of the year. Music provided by the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, a costumed funk & street beat improvisational brass band based in Cambridgeport. Food trucks, too! This will be the first of a whole series of FREE programs at Magazine Beach this summer.

The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, led by saxophonist Ken Field, performs a unique blend of original and traditional New Orleans Mardi Gras brass band music. The group’s colorful costumes and creative arrangements have delighted audiences from Maine to New Orleans, and this July they will be performing in Roswell, NM and Venice, Italy.

Knucklebones will inspire athletics for all ages…for the love of play!

 Art Installations, that you can contribute to: Rising Tides by the Energy Necklace Project, looking forwards and making the invisible visible by showing future flood levels due to sea level rise, storm floods and climate change today, 2050, 2100. . Marking the Shoreline by Cambridgeport’s own Ross Miller, looking back, at the early 1800s shoreline of Captain’s Island. Yes, Magazine Beach was once an island!

And Foodtrucks: Whole Foods and Frosty’s Ice Cream Truck

Organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., with partners the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Arts and the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Sponsored by Sanofi, Knucklebones and the Charles River Conservancy.

Note: In case of rain, this event will be cancelled. If it’s looking cloudy the day of the event, check here for weather updates.

Questions? Contact Cathie Zusy at cathzusy@gmail.com or 617-868-0489.

Location: Magazine Beach Park is along Memorial Drive, between the BU Bridge and Riverside Boat Club, and across from Micro Center and Trader Joe’s. It is at the foot of Magazine Street; there is a pedestrian bridge there to cross over to the park. It is a 15-minute walk down Magazine Street from the Central Square MBTA stop.

Join us for a full summer of events at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, MA (at the foot of Magazine Street, just across Memorial Drive). It’s time to go to the beach, Magazine Beach! For more information, go to our Facebook page (and once there, please like us!)

All events have been organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., with partners the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Arts, and the Cambridge Historical Commission. Thank you to our sponsors! Sanofi, the Charles River Conservancy and Knucklebones.

Painting, Magazine Beach Park, by Cambridgeport artist Jeff Gardner

It’s time to head to the beach, Magazine Beach! This summer we’ll be offering a whole program of summer activities at the park, including Saturday morning yoga, Friday evening picnic concerts, a dance performance, and even the Bread & Puppet Theater.

* Family Summer Kick-off on Friday June 20, 5-8pm.  Picnic to the tunes of Ken Field’s Revolutionary Snake Ensemble while playing games organized by Knucklebones, and mounting art installations Rising Tides and Marking the Shoreline, led by Cambridgeport’s own Ross Miller and Susan Israel. Foodtrucks will be there, too! FREE!

*The pool opens June 28^th!

*2^nd Annual Benefit Party at the Riverside Boat Club on Sunday, June 29, 7-9pm. We’ve made great strides—work will begin on the 1818 Powder Magazine shortly—but there’s more to do! Join neighbors for an evening of live music, hors d’oeuvres, drink, and great conversation as you overlook the Charles River. To purchase tickets, go to Eventbrite, or send a check for $35 per person payable to the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, to: Magazine Beach Committee, CNA, c/o Olivia Fiske, 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Please RSVP by 6.23.14.

Thanks for your commitment to bettering our 15-acre riverside park.

All events have been organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc., with partners the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Arts, and the Cambridge Historical Commission.  Thank you to our sponsors! Sanofi, the Charles River Conservancy and Knucklebones.

It’s almost picnic season again! To honor this, this Saturday, June 7th, from 12-5pm, folklorist Millie Rahn will be collecting stories about Cambridge picnics in the Folklife tent at University Park on Sidney Street. She’s eager for: “memories, stories, and foods/traditions of picnics, as well as photographs, objects (picnic baskets, tablecloths, blankets, dishes, etc.), games, and other picnic lore.”

Magazine Beach picnickers, please share your tales! Click here, for more information about Cambridge River Fest (this year at Central Square). The information about the Folklife tent, go to page 10.

Also, many thanks to Novartis’s 80 volunteers for their clean up of Magazine Beach on May 22nd. According to organizer Danielle Stehlik, of the Charles River Conservancy, they: “picked up trash, raked leaves (under the overpass, in the sprinkler pool, and along the pathways), mulched the garden bed, and removed graffiti. They also fixed and painted benches between River Street and Western Avenue Bridges before the rain rolled in.” The park is looking so much better…

Some of the 80 Novartis volunteers. Thank you, and to the CRC, too!

Christopher Schmidt’s DJI Phhantom FC40 Quadcopter was flying over Magazine Beach last week and captured these views… Thank you, Christopher!

From Christopher, himself:

Over the past several months, I’ve been a regular visitor to Magazine Beach, at all times of day. As an owner of a new RC aircraft — specifically, a Phantom FC40 quadcopter — I’ve loved the open space of Magazine Beach for walking, and flying, in a beautifully scenic spot.

I’ve been able to fly at all times of day, from morning to night, and had conversations with dozens of people about the power of the quadcopter for aerial photography. Whether it’s filming rowers from Riverside Boat House along the river, catching an aerial shot of a little league game at Brud Whalen field, or just navigating the trees and picnic tables near the Powder Magazine, the park offers great oppourtunities for fun in the sun.

The great space, and great conversations with other people about this new technology and the benefits it gives for aerial photography, keep me coming back to Magazine Beach to enjoy a beautiful spot along the Charles River.

(Video music: Awesome Call, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC-BY.)