Quick History Stops: Sandwich, MA

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. The charming town of Sandwich, MA boasts a self-guided historical walking tour curated by the Sandwich Historical Commission and Sandwich Community Media, along with plenty of plaques and memorials. Despite the cloudy weather, I enjoyed my stroll down historic Main Street.

First Church of Christ Sandwich is a United Congregational Church on the corner of Water Street and Main Street across from Dexter Grist Mill. In 1638, this congregation was established under the Plymouth Colony charter and became the oldest Protestant church founded in America, although older congregations had transplanted from England to the colony. This building was constructed as Calvinistic Congregational Church after a schism in 1813 from First Parish Church down the street, to be covered in a few paragraphs. For pop culture, the church’s greatest claim to fame is its appearance on the cover of the gospel album How Great Thou Art recorded by Elvis in 1967.

Next door to the library is Melatiah Bourne House built in 1711. Melatiah last appeared in my post on the Sandwich Glass Museum as the builder of the Spite Barn next to First Church; the barn has since moved and is now part of the museum building. Down the road, Sandwich Public Library was built in 1909 as part of a bequeath from husband William Henry Harrison Weston and wife Sophia H. Quinnel Weston. Sophia had died in 1905, and William died a year later in 1906; they were married for thirty-three years but had no children. In 1907, the town created the Weston Memorial Fund with their generous gift, and it supports the library to this day. In front of the library is a memorial to three men from Sandwich who died during World War II.

Across from the library is the former First Parish Unitarian Church in Sandwich constructed in 1833 to house the First Parish congregation. The church has since recombined with First Church down the street, and the building become residential. Next door is the Dan’l Webster Inn, which has operated as an in for over three hundred years. In front of the bright red building is a replica stocks, a form of corporal punishment from the post-medieval era where a prisoner was ridiculed by the public with the support of the police.

The former red brick Town Hall Annex was built next to the church but is currently vacant since a move to the Town Hall in 2022 and has been in need of repairs since the 2010s. As of November 2024, the town is still accepting proposals on what to do with the historic building. Further along Main Street is the Cape Cod Railroad Express Building constructed in 1868. As mentioned in “Quick History Stops: Hyannis, MA | Part 1”, the original Cape Cod Central Railroad operated from 1861 to 1868. Local businessman William Ellis Boyden founded Cape Cod Express Company to move packages between the railroad station and post offices. Today, it houses The Weather Store, which sells weather instruments and decor.

Another pretty building in this area included the Fessendon House, formerly Fessenden Tavern, built in 1750 and later named for Nancy Freeman Fessenden Nye, who received the house as a wedding present from her husband, clipper ship captain Ezra Nye, in 1826. The couple ended up settling in Newark, New Jersey. The bright red former apothecary building was built around 1830 and has turned into The Spotted Cod, an interior design store. The war memorial nearest this building is nearly identical to that in the front yard of the library, except that it commemorates two men who died while fighting in World War I.

I love post offices, and this building is extra special, because it does not look like a classic post office! The blocky Neoclassical building was constructed in 1865 in what is now Jarvesville National Historic District, former home of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Factory. This area has been listed on the National Register since 2010. Today, the building is a mix of shops and residential units.

Past Jarvesville is St. John’s Episcopal Church in Sandwich built in 1899. The congregation first formed in 1854, as members of the Jarves family who owned the glass factory were Episcopalians. Since the town was going through financial difficulties, almost fifty years passed before a church could be built. A donor towards the project was Frances Clara Folsom Cleveland (Preston), whose husband Grover Cleveland had recently finished his second term as U.S. President. Local architect Robert H. Slack from New Bedford, MA designed the shingle style building; his biggest work was likely the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

Near Dexter Grist Mill, the Neoclassical style Sandwich Town Hall was constructed in 1834 and has been routinely decorated for patriotic occasions, although, it was its plain self on the days I visited. The area is known as Town Hall Square Historic District and has been on the National Register since 1975, with a boundary increase in 2010. The building was last restored in 2009 and is still in good shape. Easton Veterans Memorial Park next to the Town Hall is a classic American Civil War memorial with a Union soldier leaning against his gun and standing atop a towering pedestal. A newer stone near the foot of that monument remembers veterans from the Vietnam War.

Also in the vicinity is the former site of the little John Dillingham House built in 1650 but later moved to 71 Main Street. The current house was built in 1740 and is called Dunbar House for one of its owners, Henry Dunbar, although I could not find information on him outside the website for Dunbar House Tea Room and its advertising. A few other signs in the area commemorated Navy veterans in the Vietnam War; victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks; the twinning of Sandwich, MA with Sandwich, England; and family founders Benjamin Nye and Katherine Tupper Nye who lived at Nye Homestead. With plenty to see and do, I would not mind returning to Sandwich for future adventures.