What to See in Sandwich - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Sandwich Glass Museum is a glass museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts, featuring a wide range of rare glass, including glass from the local Boston & Sandwich Glass Factory which was founded in Sandwich by Deming Jarves in 1825. The Sandwich glass works primarily manufactured pressed lead-based glass, and was known for its use of color. The museum also has a live glass blower, and exhibits detailing the creation and coloring of various types of rare glass.

It has a furnace for clear glass heated to 2200 deg F that it runs 24x7 that shuts down only five years, and a computerized annealing oven to slowly cool down over a full day any new creations to help prevent cracking.

The live demo has variety of what's being created depending on time of year and nearby holidays, includes glass-blowing, shaping, mold-forming and adding bits of glass color, and the museum also has a historical movie that plays once per hour, and otherwise is a series of galleries each focused on a time period or glass creation techniques.

There is a shop at the end featuring consignment and museum-created items.^[1]

Museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Heritage Museums and Gardens, formerly the Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, is located at 67 Grove Street, Sandwich, Massachusetts. The public garden, with its nationally significant collection of rhododendrons hybridized by Charles Dexter, over 1,000 varieties of daylilies and extensive hosta collection, is complemented by three gallery buildings containing a world-class collection of American automobiles, American folk art and a working 1919 carousel and rare carousel figures.

The museum's grounds were once the estate of noted rhododendron hybridizer Charles O. Dexter, where between 1921 and 1943 Dexter developed between 5,000 and 10,000 seedlings annually. He planted many on the site. In 1969, Josiah K. Lilly III (1916–1995) and his wife established Heritage Plantation of Sandwich on the property.^[3]

Museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The Benjamin Nye Homestead is a historic house museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The 2.5-story timber-frame house was built in 1685 by Benjamin Nye, and has remained in the hands of his descendants for most of the time since then. It was apparently originally built as a saltbox style house with an integral leanto section, with the rear of the house being raise to a full two stories, probably in the 19th century. The house was sold out of the Nye family to the state of Massachusetts in 1924, but was poorly maintained by the state. With the house threatened with demolition in 1962, the Nye Family Association acquired the property and restored the house. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Nye Family Association now operates the property as a historic house museum, featuring 18th century furnishings, and is open for tours from June through October.^[4]

Place in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Wing Fort House is a historic house at Spring Hill Road in East Sandwich, Massachusetts, located within the Spring Hill Historic District.

The house was built in 1641 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

The Wing Fort House is recognized as the oldest home in New England continuously owned by the same family. Stephen Wing either purchased the homestead from the town of Sandwich, or the town granted him the property, around the time of his first marriage in 1646. His descendants continued to live in the home until 1942, when the last resident (Miss Cora M. Wing) sold the home to the Wing Family of America, Inc.

Tradition states the home was at one time a fort to protect the earliest settlers from the Native Americans. The exterior of the "Old Fort" Room (which is the oldest part of the current structure) is composed of a double wall, which may have been filled in at one time. As the Cape Indians were found to be friendly, the town did not need any fort for protection.

In 2007 dendrochronological dating of the building was attempted, but was unsuccessful due to "many of the samples having too many narrow rings, some having too few rings, and to the lack of reference chronologies from the south-eastern part of Massachusetts."

The Fort House is now a museum, privately operated by the Wing Family of America, Inc. It is located at 69 Spring Hill Road (off of Route 6a), East Sandwich, Massachusetts. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from June 15 to September 30 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and by appointment during the remainder of the year. There is a small admission fee.^[5]

First Church UCC is a Congregational church in Sandwich, Massachusetts founded in 1638 under Plymouth Colony Charter and the Mayflower Compact. It is either the oldest church on Cape Cod or the second oldest depending on the interpretation. First Church boasts Mayflower Pilgrims and their first-generation descendants as charter members. By Plymouth Colony Charter, a church was required as an official part of the governance of any newly founded township, and First Church was founded as the official church within the town of Sandwich. First Church is now a congregation of the United Church of Christ, a large theologically and socially liberal denomination. The church is open and affirming – an appellation signifying both openness to and active affirmation of all persons regardless of status. First Church is well known to tourists because of the inclusion of its current steeple on the cover of Elvis Presley's How Great Thou Art gospel album.^[6]

The Town Hall Square Historic District is a historic district encompassing the center of Sandwich, Massachusetts. The original 54-acre district was visually centered on Sandwich Town Hall, Shawme Pond, and the reconstructed Dexter Grist Mill. When first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, it was roughly bounded by Main, Grove, Water Sts. and Tupper Rd. from Beale Ave. to MA 6A. In 2010 the district was expanded, adding another 170 acres and more than 150 contributing resources.

The Town Hall Square area of Sandwich has been an important civic location since the town was established in 1637. Early in its history the dike was built which impounds Shawme Pond, and a grist mill was established there. It remained an agrarian community, due in part to the lack of a good harbor, until 1825, when glassmaking began to develop as an industry. Two important civic buildings, the town hall, and the First Church of Christ, were built in 1837 and 1847, during this period of prosperity, but many older buildings including several First Period houses from the 17th century, also survive in the area. Most of the properties in the district were built after American independence and before 1850.

The expanded district also includes a number of houses from the second half of the 19th century, including several Queen Anne and Shingle style homes. There are four cemeteries in the district, including the original burying ground, whose oldest grave dates to 1663. There are four churches and two schools in the district, including the 1928 Henry T. Wing School at 35 Water Street, which is the largest building in the district.^[8]

The Jarvesville Historic District of Sandwich, Massachusetts is a predominantly residential historic district centered on the site of the former Boston and Sandwich Glass Company factory. It is located north and east of Sandwich Center. Although the area has buildings that date to the middle of the 18th century, most of the district's more than 200 contributing properties are residences built between 1825 and 1860, when the glass company was at its height. These houses are predominantly Cape and Greek Revival in character, and are modest one- and two-family buildings that originally housed glass factory workers.

The glassworks in Jarvesville reached their peak of production and employment around the time of the American Civil War. Business began to decline in the 1860s when cheaper fuel sources in the Midwest prompted the relocation of the businesses. Most attempts to continue glassmaking operations were unsuccessful, and the industrial properties were eventually demolished in the 20th century. The residential properties continued to be occupied, often by descendants of the glassworkers, but also by workers employed in other industrial facilities in the area.

The only significant commercial properties in the district are located on Jarves Street, which is also where the separately-listed John and Mary Waterman Jarves House is located. This 1857 Italianate house was built by Deming Jarves' son, and designed by Charles Kirk Kirby. The only church in the district is the Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church at 6 Jarves Street; the Romanesque Revival building was constructed in 1901.

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.^[9]