Sandwich, Massachusetts, United States

History | Geography | Attractions | Transport

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town motto is Post tot Naufracia Portus, "after so many shipwrecks, a haven".

History Cape Cod was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to European colonization. In the contact period, Sandwich was occupied by the Eastern Algonquian speaking Wampanoag who aided the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in the 1620s. Despite significant losses of life and cultural heritage due to virgin soil epidemics, King Philip's War, and conversion and assimilation efforts that pushed them into Praying Towns, the Mashpee Wompanoag still live on Cape Cod and efforts are underway to revive the Wompanoag language.

A group of English settlers from Saugus, Massachusetts, colonized Sandwich in 1637 with the permission of the Plymouth Colony. It is named for the seaport of Sandwich, Kent, England. It was incorporated in 1639 and is the oldest town on Cape Cod together with Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The western portion of the town was separated from the original Town of Sandwich and became the town of Bourne in 1884.

There are many historic homes in Sandwich, including the Benjamin Nye Homestead on Old County Road (formerly known as Old King's Highway) and the Benjamin Holway House built in 1789 at 379 Route 6A. This property hosts one of the original Nye Homestead structures built in 1698 and is believed to have originally served as either a tavern or a shop. It is now used as a law office.

Sandwich was the site of an early Quaker settlement and today hosts the oldest continuous Quaker Meeting in the U.S. There were some conflicts with other religious groups, so some Quakers left the town for further settlements elsewhere including Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Many of Sandwich's prominent families have Quaker ties.

Early industry revolved around agriculture with fishing and trading also providing for the town. Later, the town grew a small industrial component along the Scusset River and Old Harbor Creek and its tributaries. Today, most of its industry revolves around tourism.

Deming Jarves founded the Boston & Sandwich Glass Factory in 1825. Sandwich had proximity to a shallow harbor, was a possible canal site, and had local supplies of timber to fuel the glass furnaces. The glass works primarily made lead glass and was known for its use of color. Jarves received several patents for his improvements in glass mold designs and pressing techniques. The factory declined after the American Civil War due to competition from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia companies that produced less expensive pressed soda-lime glass tableware.

The Cape Cod Canal was constructed through the town starting in 1909, opening for travel in 1914. The Canal Generating Plant went online in 1968.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 44.2 square miles (114.5ย kmยฒ), of which 42.7 square miles (110.7ย kmยฒ) is land and 1.5 square miles (3.8ย kmยฒ), or 3.32%, is water. Sandwich is bordered by Cape Cod Bay to the north, Barnstable to the east, Mashpee and Falmouth to the south, and Bourne to the west. It is approximately 57 miles (92ย km) south-southeast of Boston.

Sandwich is the site of the Cape Cod Bay entrance to the Cape Cod Canal. The northern point of Sandwich, where Sagamore Hill and Scusset Beach State Reservation lie, is divided from the rest of the town by the canal. The town is also the location of the Shawme-Crowell State Forest and the Massachusetts State Game Farm. The town is home to six beaches along the shores of Cape Cod Bay. The rest of the town's geography is typical of the rest of the Cape, with many small ponds and hills, with most of the trees being pine or oak. Sandwich is also the site of Old Harbor Creek, a large inlet with several other small creeks feeding it, which once served to provide safe harbor for ships.

Attractions There are several attractions in Sandwich, including Heritage Museums and Gardens, the Wing Fort House, the Sandwich Glass Museum, the Thornton Burgess Museum, Hoxie House (the oldest house on Cape Cod), the Daniel Webster Inn, the Dexter Grist Mill (the oldest mill on Cape Cod), the Sandwich Friends (Quaker) Meetinghouse (the oldest in North America), and Shawme Lake. Sandwich is home to numerous art galleries, as well as rare book and antique stores. Many of these attractions are found within the Town Hall Square Historic District and Jarvesville Historic District within the town. Sandwich is also home to a major portion of Otis Air National Guard Base, including half the land that the runways are on.

The Sandwich boardwalk is located in downtown and leads to the Town Beach on Cape Cod Bay. It is a popular tourist attraction and was elected by National Geographic in July 2010 as one of the top ten boardwalks in the United States. It is 1,350 feet long, from Scorton Creek to the Cape Cod Canal, and crossing the Creek Mill and the marsh. It was created in 1875 by Gustavus Howland, the son of Ellis Howland who built the town hall. In 1991, it was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Bob. It was rebuilt in 1992, financed through the sale of 1,700 personalized planks with engravings. It was damaged by blizzards in March 2018, but was rebuilt and reopened in June 2018.

Transport U.S. Route 6, also known as the Mid-Cape Highway on Cape Cod, passes through the town to the north of Otis Air National Guard Base as a four-lane divided freeway. There are three exits off this route within town. Massachusetts Route 6A passes through town to the north of Route 6, and is the town's main local road. The northern terminus of Massachusetts Route 130 is near the intersection of Routes 6 and 6A within town. The road passes along the eastern side of Otis on its way towards Mashpee.

Freight rail service is provided by the Massachusetts Coastal Railroad. The Cape Cod Central Railroad, which operates seasonal tourist excursions from Hyannis to Buzzards Bay, serves Sandwich via a station in the western section of the town.

The nearest MBTA's commuter rail stations are the Kingston/Route 3 and Middleborough/Lakeville stations, both of which provide direct service to Boston. There is also seasonal passenger rail available in nearby Hyannis and Bourne via the CapeFlyer, which runs to Boston's South Station along the Middleborough/Lakeville line. The nearest inter-city (Amtrak) passenger rail stations are Boston's South Station and Providence.

The town was one that had been served by Amtrak's Cape Codder train service (1986โ€“1996); however, it has been eliminated from the schedule of the seasonal Cape Flyer train service. From the 19th century, under the Old Colony Railroad, and until 1964 under the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, passenger trains served Sandwich. Trains of the 1940sโ€“1960s included the Day Cape Codder and the Neptune.

The nearest private and regional air service can be found in Barnstable, and the nearest national and international airport is Logan International Airport in Boston.

America/New_York/Massachusetts 
<b>America/New_York/Massachusetts</b>
Image: Adobe Stock iuliia_n #175885945

Sandwich has a population of over 20,259 people. Sandwich also forms part of the wider Barnstable County which has a population of over 228,996 people. Sandwich is situated 23 km north-west of Barnstable.

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Sandwich has links with:

๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ Sandwich, England
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Sandwich is: 109.506,-41.759

Locations Near: Sandwich -70.4944,41.7589

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Barnstable -70.3,41.7 d: 17.4  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Plymouth -70.664,41.956 d: 26  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ New Bedford -70.927,41.635 d: 38.5  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Taunton -71.083,41.9 d: 51.3  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ South Weymouth -70.953,42.155 d: 58.1  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Brockton -71.017,42.085 d: 56.4  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ East Weymouth -70.917,42.217 d: 61.7  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Weymouth -70.94,42.221 d: 63.2  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Fall River -71.164,41.695 d: 56  

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Quincy -71,42.25 d: 68.8  

Antipodal to: Sandwich 109.506,-41.759

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 18933.6  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Albany 117.867,-35.017 d: 18970.6  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 18851.1  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 18825  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 18810.3  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 18787.8  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 18787.1  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 18777.8  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Midland 116.01,-31.888 d: 18775.1  

๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 18769.3  

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