Cubs from Pack 56 cleaned up the park as they learned about good citizenship last Thursday.
Jason Williams brought Magazine Beach blossoms and blooms to Harvard Square at the Rotary’s Chalk on the Walk on May Day and won a People’s Choice Award.
Magazine Beach: Checkpoint for May 5 Walk for Hunger
Participants David and Luis take a break 16.5 miles into the walk.
Powder Magazine Open House
Saturday, May 11, 2013 12:00-3:30pm
at Magazine Beach Park (Memorial Drive, Cambridge)
As part of Preservation Month, DCR will open our 1818 Powder Magazine for touring! From the DCR brochure:
DCR’s Magazine Beach is named after the historic Powder Magazine located on the shore of the Charles River. Built in 1818 for storage of gunpowder for the Massachusetts Militia, the building was converted into a bathhouse as part of the Olmsted plan for Magazine Beach in 1899. Vacant and underutilized for many years, DCR is now partnering with the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association on a Historic Structures Report which will guide the building’s long term preservation. Local historians will be on hand to share the rich history of the Powder Magazine with visitors.
Also: As one of the state’s oldest and most active preservation organizations, DCR is steward to 12,000 years of human history, nearly a half million acres of land, and 2,000 cultural resources including 100+ National Register-listed properties and 8 National Historic Landmarks. Visit our website to see the complete DCR Preservation Month program http://www.mass.gov/dcr/.
_________
Public Meeting on Draft Historic Structure Report for the Powder Magazine
at Magazine Beach
Thursday, May 16, 2013, 6:30 – 8:00pm
in the Morse School Auditorium (40 Granite Street, Cambridge)
At this public meeting, DCR, the City of Cambridge Historical Commission, and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association will present, and solicit public input on, a Draft Historic Structures Report for the Powder Magazine at Magazine Beach in Cambridge. This report will guide future capital improvements and reuse of the structure.
If you have questions about the public meeting, please call 617-626-4974 or email DCR.Updates@state.ma.us.
We had a great meeting with Senator Anthony Petruccelli at Magazine Beach today. It was sunny and warm and many had gathered at the park to celebrate the day. We walked the grounds and talked about the history of the site and its great potential. Why not have a beautiful fifteen-acre park along the Charles River in Cambridge?
Next week we will meet with DCR’s Commissioner Edward Lambert, Jr., Mayor Henrietta Davis, and our Deputy City Manager Richard Rossi in Senator Petruccelli’s office. To figure out: how to actualize this green resource. Certainly, we can do it if we work together. Below are photos of the park today, with a focus on flaws—all very correctible!
Thank you to Sen. Petruccelli, Comm. Lambert, Deputy City Manager Rossi, and Mayor Davis for making improvements at Magazine Beach a priority.
Sunken pavement that could be a great lawn.
A dead play structure.
A broken wading pool.
An historically significant building with holes in the roof and lots of graffiti.
Trees that need pruning.
Picnic tables and benches in need of repair.
There was great energy at the Earth Day Magazine Beach Cleanup yesterday, with over 60 volunteers at work making the place look much better. Thanks to the Area 4 Junior Youth Empowerment Program, the Riverside Boat Club, the Charles River Conservancy, the CRLS students, the many neighborhood folks, and Starbucks volunteers who assisted. Thanks are also due to DCR for whisking the trash away and for fixing several of the benches in the park!
Starbucks, thanks for sponsoring the cleanup and providing the hot coffee, t-shirts, and Starbucks Community Volunteers. Thanks also to the Charles River Watershed Association, who organize the overall, whole Charles River, Earth Day Cleanup. Our event was part of the larger one, which draws thousands of volunteers each April to clean up the riverbanks.
Along with liquor bottles, broken glass, cans, bottle caps and cigarette butts, we found a lot of strange things, including: a man’s formal black shoe, a trench coat, a frying pan, a big bike lock, a corded telephone, hubcaps, headphones, VHS cassettes, and the plate from dumbbell…
We couldn’t have had a more beautiful day!
Youth empowerment in action!
Carl, one of Magazine Beach’s regulars, cleans up around the powder magazine.
Hibih and Sophia from CRL in the bush. Lots of trash there…
DCR at work fixing benches.
All the way from Dorchester, this group helped us last year, too!
Andy and David and but one of our trash mounds.
Some guys will go to extra lengths to remove litter.
Brian Campbell triumphant.
Over 60 volunteered. Thanks to Starbucks for sponsoring our event.
Niles and fellow rower from the Riverside Boat Club, also triumphant.
CNA Board Member Olivia Fiske and DCR’s Director of Partnerhips Conrad Crawford, both at the park, pitching in.
Today’s Earth Day Cleanup postponed due to Friday’s lockdown–If you haven’t already, please sign up TODAY for the Saturday, April 27th, 9-12noon, Earth Day Cleanup. This year, Starbucks is partnering with us at Magazine Beach and it’s likely that they’ll sponsor us per volunteer. So your volunteering will help us twice: once with the park cleanup and a second time with a possible corporate donation.
Signing up is a 2-step process. Please persevere. We need you!
1. Register as a community volunteer at: community.starbucks.com.
2. Register for the event, itself: http://community.starbucks.com/groups/charles-river-earth-day-cleanup-at-magazine-beach
Meet us in front of the Riverside Boat Club on Saturday morning. The Charles River Conservancy will provide gloves, tools and assignments. Hoping for a beautiful, sunny day…
This is where and when it all started. The CNA organized its first cleanup of Magazine Beach with partners the CRC and RBC in November 2010! We’ve come a long way since then.
Earth Day Cleanup–Please remember to sign up TODAY for the Saturday, April 20th, 9-12noon, Earth Day Cleanup. This year, Starbucks is partnering with us at Magazine Beach and it’s likely that they’ll sponsor us per volunteer. So your volunteering will help us twice: once with the park cleanup and a second time with a possible corporate donation.
Signing up is a 2-step process. Please persevere. We need you!
1. Register as a community volunteer at: community.starbucks.com.
2. Register for the event, itself: http://community.starbucks.com/groups/charles-river-earth-day-cleanup-at-magazine-beach
Meet us in front of the Riverside Boat Club on Saturday morning. The Charles River Conservancy will provide gloves, tools and assignments. So far 15 people have volunteered to assist. We’ll need at least 5 more to qualify for Starbucks funds, so PLEASE sign-up today.
HSR Presentation and Powder Magazine Open House–Coming soon: May dates for a public meeting presentation of the Historic Structure Report for our 1818 Powder Magazine, and an open house for it, too.
Small Powder Magazine Exhibit at the Cambridge Public Library–A key to the powder magazine and the historic photo, “The Old Magazine,” will both be on view on the 2nd floor of the Main Library until April 15. Check it out! See CPL Archivist Alyssa Pacy’s blog posts about it here and here, too.
Donations, Please–Many thanks to all who have contributed to the stabilization of this historic structure. About 100 neighbors have donated so far. We’ve raised almost $10,000 that we’re hoping DCR will match 2:1. If you haven’t made your tax-deductible contribution yet, please do. Send a check made out to “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc.” (note: for powder magazine stabilization) to: CNA Treasurer Jay Shetterly at 127 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139.
We Need Contributions of Talent, Too–We are grateful for the outpouring of support to revitalize Magazine Beach. How can you help? We need assistance with grant writing, social media, graphic design, photography, editing, etc. Please let me know: Cathie Zusy, CNA Board Member, cathzusy@gmail.com or 617-868-0489.
Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook!– www.facebook.com/magazinebeach
That’s it for now….
Thank you to the seventy or so who joined us Sunday evening at Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway’s for a very upbeat fundraiser featuring DCR’s Director of Cultural Resources, Patrice Kish; The Cambridge Historical Commission’s Ex. Director Charles Sullivan; Cambridge’s Director of Community Planning, Stuart Dash; and historic building expert Bill Finch, who’s working on the historic structure report for the powder magazine. The presenters shared a rendering of the powder magazine as we think it was originally and of what it could be come next. Sullivan also shared a newly discovered image of the 1818 powder magazine—without roof—found in the Cambridge Historical Society collection. Let us stabilize the building and fix the roof before the structure is reduced to a ruin once more!
The Old Magazine, 1890s
Courtesy of the Cambridge Historical Society, Old Cambridge Photographic Club Collection
Recent CRLS graduate Augie Cummings debuted his five-minute film, “Magazine Beach,” starring Cambridge historians Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen and landscape architect Bertha Pantoja. The film, just below, presents the history of Magazine Beach and it possibilities. Thank you to the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund for funding this project.
What a lovely gathering of community around a cause—to make improvements to our local park. We’re starting first with the powder magazine. Sullivan has said it is the oldest and possibly the most significant building on the Charles River Basin.
It’s not too late to make a donation. Send checks to CNA Board Member Olivia Fiske at 131 Magazine St., #2, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Photographs of the party by Mason D. Cox.
Save these dates:
PARTY! Sunday, March 24, 5-7pm
Decia Goodwin and Brian Conway (175 Chestnut St.) will host a fundraiser to restore the historic powder magazine at Magazine Beach: the first step to revitalizing the park. Join us for wine, hors d’oeuvres and good conversation along with updates on the historic structure report and the debut of Cambridgeport’s own Augie Cummings’ film “Magazine Beach.” $35 per person. Make checks out to the “Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Inc.,” noting: “for powder magazine restoration.” Mail them to CNA Board Member Olivia Fiske at 131 Magazine St., Cambridge, MA 02139.
Sign up NOW for the Earth Day Cleanup, Saturday, April 20, 9am-12noon
The 14th annual Earth Day Cleanup is less than a month away. To register, click here. This year, Starbucks is partnering with us at Magazine Beach. It’s likely that they’ll sponsor us per volunteer, so by participating, you will be helping us twice: once with the cleanup and a second time with a possible corporate donation. Thank you, you, and thank you, Starbucks!
Public Meeting to Present Historic Structure Report for the Powder Magazine and to Discuss Potential Reuse Options, TBD, in late April or early May
The Historic Structure Report is being finalized and DCR will be scheduling a meeting in late April or early May to present findings to the community and to discuss potential reuse options. Stay tuned!
Last Monday, as a “park expert,” I presented our project to 5th graders in Sarah Baszto’s class at the Cambridgeport School. As part of an expeditionary learning project, the students are studying the nearby Sennott Park (on Broadway, next to the Area IV Youth Center), an 1811 cemetery that was later transformed into a park by the Olmsteds. The students were eager to hear about our park and many of them knew it well. I talked with them about how we have used history to inform our efforts; gathered input via surveys and interviews; and created exhibits, a blog and a Facebook page to generate interest. I also spoke with them about how now we’re raising funds to make park improvements.
Over the next weeks the students will be preparing projects and reports. It’ll be fun to see where they take Sennott Park!
Here are some of the student takeaways from my visit:
– History is fun!
– It is fun working with a trained professional.
– Parks are cool.
– It was fun learning from her.
– She was very nice to volunteer here and at Magazine Beach.
– You can always find ways to help more!
– She has a great passion for what she does.
– I think it’s great to be able to have a connection with a park.
– The talk was interesting.
– It was fun to learn history with her.
– The Magazine Beach project is a lot like ours.
– It’s fun learning the history of Magazine Beach.
Students in Cherie Miot Abbanat’s (11.027) City–to-City class at MIT are hard at work producing much needed products to further our efforts. Paula and Rene have already made a difference, adding a DONATE button to our blog. (Give it a try!) In the coming weeks they will be creating a Facebook page for Magazine Beach and linking it to kindred organizations. Vanessa and Emma will be developing a five-year strategic plan and budget for the spin-off Magazine Beach group. And Lawrence and Chrystal are updating our tired 2011 historical exhibits. We will debut these at our upcoming, March 24th fundraiser—more about that very soon.
We are very thankful to Cherie for sharing her students and their talents. After a few weeks in Cambridgeport, they’ll be off to New Orleans where they’ll be working on more long-term projects, among them: developing a Creative Business District, proposing a public transport system that services the New Orleans airport, assessing community health projects, and reviewing city budgets.
Watch for our new look!
Emma and Vanessa consider our longterm goals and objectives.
Magazine Beach 