Magazine Beach

The New England Grassroots Environmental Fund has awarded the CNA $1,500 to further our work at Magazine Beach. This money will be used to provide a modest stipend to local historians Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen, who have been researching the site to inform preservation efforts at the 1818 powder magazine and future interpretation of the park.  It will also provide a small stipend to filmmakers Jennifer Malin, of Harvard University, and to Augie Cummings, of Cambridge Rindge & Latin. Together, they will produce a short film about the rich history and potential of the fifteen-acre park. We are grateful to the NEGEF for their support for this project. This is their second grant to the CNA. In April 2011, they awarded us $4,000.  Thank you NEGEF!

Spring is in the air at Magazine Beach.

May 17^th, 83 Novartis volunteers worked 9am-2pm to:

• cut back the overgrown bushes along the river;
• remove growth from the fence around the pool;
• pick up trash and broken glass;
• weed in front of the bathhouse;
• paint the perimeter fence; and
• rake leaves.

A hearty thanks to Novartis for giving Magazine Beach a much needed makeover and to Danielle Stehlik, Volunteer Coordinator at the Charles River Conservancy, for coordinating this project. Photos by Danielle.

We had a great turnout for the 13^th Annual Earth Day Cleanup at Magazine Beach today. Among those contributing were the Riverside Boat Club, the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Whole Foods, and the Diamond Girlz—the latter, motorcyclists from Rhode Island, Marlborough, West Roxbury, Quincy and Boston. While it still looks scruffy, Magazine Beach is much, much neater.

Many thanks to the volunteers who gave their morning to cleanup our park, to Starbucks for the coffee, and to the organizing institutions: the Charles River Watershed Association, Charles River Conservancy, Riverside Boat Club and Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association.

Photos courtesy of Pascal David, Maria Lane and Cathie Zusy

On Tuesday April 17, Ph.D student Chris Maio, Associate Professor Allen Gontz, and I (all from UMass Boston) conducted a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of Magazine Beach, under the supervision of Department of Conservation and Recreation archaeologist Ellen Berkland. We crisscrossed the park with the GPR equipment, creating a digital record of the layers of sediment that make up the park. 

We hope that studying the data from this survey will help us see what the area may have looked like before it was made into a park, when much of the area of Magazine Beach and the soccer and baseball fields was probably tidal mudflat. We have not yet analyzed the data, but it is clear from initial examination that the area has changed significantly due to human actions, and it will be interesting to map the park as it was a few hundred years ago, before these changes took place.

-Lars Anderas, masters student in Environmental Science at UMass Boston

Meet in front of the Riverside Boat Club. Goodies, drinks, work gloves,
t-shirts (for those who signed up for them), and garbage bags will all be there.

Organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, Riverside Boat Club, Charles River Conservancy and the Charles River Watershed Association

Photos from last June’s cleanup

We’re rethinking Magazine Beach and we need your ideas. Since the City of Cambridge purchased the area between the BU bridge and Riverside Boat Club in 1890s, the people of Cambridge have seen the park as a fabulous opportunity: 15 acres of open-space along the Charles River. Today it is only second in size to Danehy Park.

Working with residents and local businesses, we now hope to improve Magazine Beach. Please share your ideas by responding to this survey. Answers please by April 30th! (New deadline!)
Cathie Zusy, Board Member, Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association
Conrad Crawford, Director of Partnerships, Department of Conservation & Recreation

Yet few remain today. According to Tom Kolterjahn, a profusion of powder houses and powder magazines were built between 1800 and the 1820s to keep communities secure. Today powder houses survive in Beverly, Newburyport, and Amesbury, MA; Portsmouth, NH; and Fort McClary, and Hallowell, ME. There are also two older, 18^th-century powder houses in Somerville and Marblehead, MA. These structures come in many shapes and sizes.

Last month, a group of us met with Kolterjahn, a resident of Newburyport, who has helped to research and restore the 1822 powder house there. This small circular building on Godfrey’s Hill was built to store gun powder for the local militia. This was Newburyport’s third powder house. One had been located closer to the downtown district, until the town decided that public safety would be better served by a powder house on the town’s outskirts.

Stay tuned for further updates regarding the Cambridgeport powder magazine.  Marilyn Wellons and Nina Cohen are currently researching our building, which was erected along the Charles River—also far from settlement—in 1818.

All photographs, except the one of our powder magazine, are courtesy of Kolterjahn. Thank you Tom!

It seems like there’s always more to do in our parks!  The Charles River Conservancy was joined by 18 MIT students for a cleanup at Magazine Beach this past Saturday, Dec. 12th.  They raked dozens of bags of leaves, filling up an entire dumpster!  Students picked up trash and also fixed the tops of three picnic tables that were damaged and gave them a fresh coat of paint.  We want to say thank you to all the volunteers and organizations that help keep Magazine Beach accessible for everyone, especially Riverside Boat Club and Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association!

Danielle Stehlik
Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator
The Charles River Conservancy
4 Brattle St
Cambridge, MA 02138dms@thecharles.org
(617) 300-8173

www.thecharles.org

Over the past months, third grade art students at the Morse School in Cambridge have visited Magazine Beach, studied how designers represent park designs, and crafted colorful depictions of this currently derelict green space.

Aimee Kerr’s students have imagined community gardens, flowerbeds, skate parks, dog parks, tree houses, basketball and tennis courts, helicopter rides, a real beach with water slides, and lots of activity in and on the water: boating, swimming and fishing, too.

Many students have converted the 1818 Powder House into a café—one drawing pictures an All You Can Eat Café—serving all flavors of ice cream and hot chocolate, too. And they’ve added curving paths to the landscape and an outdoor movie theater behind the current pool.

Come see and admire these drawings, on view at Central Square’s at Bank of America, Cambridge Savings Bank and Toscanini’s, December 13-January 2, and help us to imagine a new, revitalized Magazine Beach. To share your own brilliant ideas for Cambridge’s second largest park, fill out this survey.

Thank you to Aimee Kerr and her amazing students for providing the artwork and to our local bankers and Tocanini’s for exhibiting it. This exhibit is organized by the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, which is partnering with the Department of Recreation and Conservation, Charles River Conservancy, and Riverside Boat Club to make Magazine Beach a place we want to go!