Magazine Beach

Come help clean up from Hurricane Sandy this Saturday, Nov. 3, from 9-12noon. There are plenty of branches to gather, limbs to move and leaves to rake.

Meet at the parking crescent! Contact the CRC’s Danielle Stehlik if you can join us at dms@thecharles.org. She will provide tools and work gloves. Wear sturdy shoes and bring water. See you at the Beach!

Please contact CRC Volunteer Coordinator Danielle Stehlik at dms@thecharles.org if you can join us. We’ll be weeding & mulching the garden beds, edging, weeding by the powder magazine, and picking up trash.

Wear old clothes and sturdy shoes and meet at the crescent, near the pedestrian footbridge (not in front of the Riverside Boat Club). The CRC will provide work gloves, tools and assignments.

Volunteer hard at work at August cleanup!

State Rep. Marty Walz and the CNA’s Cathie Zusy receive distinguished service awards from the Charles River Conservancy

Last evening, just before River Sing, the Charles River Conservancy recognized volunteers for their efforts to preserve our parklands. Among those who received awards were State Rep. Marty Walz, who has championed our work at Magazine Beach, and me, Cathie Zusy of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association. Many thanks to all of you who have participated in our cleanups and celebrations and to the Charles River Conservancy for their stewardship of our river parklands. Working with DCR and the Riverside Boat Club, we are on our way to transforming the park, powder magazine and all.

Gunpowder from vessels in Boston harbor and for militia use was once stored in this 1818 granite block building at Magazine Beach–named for the gun powder magazine–in Cambridge. DCR has just contracted Clark & Green to do an historic structure report that will document the building’s physical condition and history and recommend how best to stabilize, restore, rehabilitate and reuse it.

Since November 2010, the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association has been working to revitalize Magazine Beach with several partners: Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club, Cambridge Historical Commission, and DCR.  ”The structure is deteriorating and I’ve long wanted it to be restored,” noted Charles Sullivan, Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission. “This ancient granite block building is historically and architecturally significant, and adds character to Cambridge’s second largest park.”

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation has awarded a contract to Clark & Green Architecture Design of Great Barrington, Mass., to produce an Historic Structure Report for the 1818 powder magazine at Magazine Beach. Steve McCalister will serve as lead architect for this project, working in association with the structural engineer John Wathne, William Finch, an architectural conservator, and Nina Cohen, a historian. The report will document the physical condition of the building; its history and use; assess the building’s structural integrity; determine preservation priorities; recommend how best to stabilize, restore, and rehabilitate the structure; and propose reuse options.

Clark & Green have worked successfully with DCR on several projects, including the Charles River Reservation Speedway Building in Brighton, Mass. and the Mt. Greylock Visitors’ Center and Summit House at Joseph Skinner State Park.

This study will build on the 2011-2012 historic research undertaken by Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen, the 2012 CNA survey results (forthcoming), and the 2009 report, “Powder House Revitalization: An Integrated Approach” by Harvard graduate students Masako Ikegami and Paul Laszlo.

The study will be funded by a $25,000 Community Preservation Act grant from the City of Cambridge matched 2:1 by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the guardians of the park.  Remaining funds will be used in 2013 to help stabilize and reroof the powder magazine. For more information about revitalization efforts, contact Cathie Zusy at cathzusy@gmail.com or Patrice Kish at patrice.kish@state.ma.us.

[For further information about the history of Magazine Beach and about our efforts there, go to the Boston Globe’s recent article: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2012/10/_few_joggers_or_passersby.html]

While DOT has some cleaning up to do, our long vista of green has been restored.

Where did the summer go?

Our Veterans Memorial Swimming Pool will reopen next June!

Fourteen people volunteered from Cambridge Associates on Friday, August 24th to clean up Magazine Beach.  They helped fix some benches that were in desperate need of repair.  Thank you to David Rosen of North Bennet Street School for helping us fix the benches and to DCR for donating the paint and wood.  

Cambridge Associates also weeded the garden bed in front of the pool house and did a great job planting flowers from Mahoney’s Garden Center.  We want to thank Mahoney’s for giving us a discount on the flowers that we purchased!

Thank you to all for your help!
Danielle Stehlik, Charles River Conservancy, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator