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 The Cape’s oldest town was started as a trading post in 1627, was settled in 1637 and incorporated two years later, in 1639, by a splinter group of Puritans. Plymouth Colony’s records claim “tenn men from Saugust (presently known as Lynn, Massachusetts) were granted “liberty to view a place to sitt down & have sufficient lands for three score famylies.” The land was cleared and homes built by Edmund Freeman and his compatriots. Small wonder they liked this area so much, for it had plentiful fresh water, fish and salt marsh hay for livestock. The settlers named the town after the town of Sandwich in East Kent, rather than the Earl of Sandwich (who was born 118 years after the town’s incorporation). The English town of Sandwich was renowned for its salt marsh. Sandwich today comprises 42 square miles with seven villages: Sandwich, East Sandwich, South Sandwich, Scorton Neck, Forestdale, Wakeby and Forestdale. The economy of early Sandwich was based upon agriculture and whaling on Cape Cod Bay. Nineteenth century Sandwich was a bustling industrial town, with two glass factories, a card and tag company, a tack factory and several shoe factories. In the 1820s, Boston glass merchant Deming Jarves established a glass factory, Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, having recognized that the town’s location and natural resources were near perfect for such an undertaking. There were plentiful silica (sand), salt, firewood, hay for packing the finished product and a good harbor for shipping whatever the town lacked (Jarves also felt that his employees would not squander their money on city temptations, as they had in Boston). His master glassblowers and colorists produced exquisite glasswork. By the 1850s, the town boasted two glass factories—manufacturing the entire spectrum of glassware, from the functional to the strictly decorative—making Sandwich one of the foremost glass capitals of the world. Jarves’ factory closed in 1888, but Sandwich glass is still highly prized by collectors and even museums. Contemporary Sandwich center has really not changed much—punctuated by rows of prim weathered clapboard homes, Greek Revival houses, including a pillared town hall, a Christopher Wren-inspired First Church of Christ and a town common encircled by ancient shade trees. The carefully-restored Hoxie House—named after a 19th century resident, whaling Captain Abraham Hoxie, born 1808—was built circa 1637 on a knoll overlooking willow-lined Shawme Pond. It is believed to be Cape Cod’s oldest house. The modest structure contains a collection of furnishings which are impressive in their simplicity and ingenuity (the 1701 inlaid Connecticut blanket chest is wondrous). Dexter Grist Mill, off Water Street, south of Main Street. This circa 1640 grist mill is the real McCoy, built by Thomas Dexter, and was one of several turbine-powered workhorses used during the glass factories’ Halcyon days. It went out of use in 1880s, when coal-powered western mills provided cheaper flour and sat idle until the 1920s, when it was resurrected in a new incarnation as a tea room to cater to a tourists driving to the Cape by a comparatively new invention, the automobile. Its cypress wood waterwheel and wooden gears are powered by pond overflow. Today, the mill’s output is cornmeal which is happily sold in cloth bags. Open from mid-May to mid-October; hours vary. Green Briar Nature Center & Jam Kitchen, East of town at 6 Discovery Hill Road. “Tis a wonderful thing to sweeten a world which is in a jam and needs preserving,” wrote conservationist Thornton Burgess to Ida Putnam. The young Burgess wandered the woods surrounding Putnam’s jam kitchen. Children will love this center with changing natural history exhibits, a full summer program of nature classes, self-guided walks through 52 acres of Sandwich Conservation land and weekday tours of the Jam Kitchen, which makes natural jams, jellies, and pickles from Putnam’s original recipes. The Center is nestled deep in the woods adjacent to a pond—the scene looking rather like an illustration from one of the Burgess storybooks. The Briar Patch, Off Route 6A, East Sandwich. An exceedingly pleasant 57-acre area of white pine and black locust trees with meandering trails. This spot was inspiration for many of Thornton Burgess’ writings. Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Grove Street. Americana museum on 76 manicured acres with a wide assortment of flora, a 1912 carousel, an antique car collection (including Gary Cooper’s mint green and dazzling 1930 Duesenberg), a military museum with more than 2,000 handpainted miniatures and collections of flags and firearms, an impressive collection of antique weathervanes, early American primitive and western art, including Currier & Ives lithographs and carved cigar-store figures. Open Mother’s Day to late October. Hoxie House, Route 130 (Water Street). This archetypal, restored shingle saltbox house is alleged to be Cape Cod’s oldest. It was built circa 1675 for the town’s second minister, John Smith, and was named after whaling Captain Abraham Hoxie, who purchased the house in the 1850s. The House sits on a high knoll overlooking willow-lined Shawme Pond—haunt of ubiquitous water fowl—and is authentically furnished to reflect the Colonial period and features a collection of antique textile machines. Twentieth-century occupants lived here, sans electricity, plumbing or central heat, until the early 1950s. Open mid-June to -October. Sandwich Glass Museum, 129 Main Street at Tupper Road. This fascinating museum introduces glass-making with a short video about Deming Jarves’ 19th century glass-making endeavor, wherein glass, heretofore only for the wealthy, became available to the middle classes. The Museum contains one of the largest collections of Sandwich glass in the US. In addition to providing a comprehensive portrait of the glass-making industry through artifacts, equipment, old photographs and records. The dazzling display of glass is displayed to optimal effect along banks of sunny windows through which sun illuminates the glass, lighting up the Museum in a kaleidoscope of colors. There are also artifacts of early Sandwich history and a gift shop. Open all year except January; hours vary. Shawme-Crowell State Forest, Route 130. This 742-acre forest is less than one mile from the Cape Cod Canal and has 280 sites for RV and wooded tent camping (no hookups). Open-air campfires are permitted. Biking and hiking and campers are allowed free use of Scusset Beach. Thornton W. Burgess Museum, 4 Water Street. The famous children’s author (1874-1965)made Sandwich his home and this refreshing little museums contains a collection of his writings and original illustrations of his animal characters by Harrison Cady. Burgess was an avid conservationist and prolific author, having written 15,000 children’s stories and 170 books, the most famous of which were the popular series Old Mother West Wind and Peter Rabbit stories. Animal characters came alive in habitats such as the Old Briar Patch, Smiling Pool and Crooked Little Path. Children thrill to the “see and touch” room, live-animal story hour and Peter Rabbit puzzles and games. Open daily April-December. |
