Sandwich Town News & Information

SandwichCLAIM TO FAME: Glass Town

HISTORICAL BRAGGING RIGHTS: Oldest town on Cape Cod

BEACHES: Boardwalk Beach, East Sandwich Beach, Scusset Beach State Reservation, Springhill Beach

DON’T MISS: Sandwich Glass Museum, Heritage Museums and Gardens, Sandwich Boardwalk, Antiquing

The town of Sandwich is situated on Cape Cod Bay with Barnstable to the east, Mashpee and Falmouth to the south and Bourne to the southwest. Sandwich was first settled by a group from Saugus in 1637 with permission from the Plymouth Colony and officially incorporated in 1639, making it the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town’s namesake is that of Sandwich in Kent, England. Sandwich celebrated its 375th anniversary in the summer of 2014.

Sandwich was the site of an early Quaker settlement, but many of them left town after clashing with the town’s founding Puritans. Early industry revolved around agriculture, fishing and trading, like most Cape towns. Later, the town grew a small industrial component along the Scusset River and Old Harbor Creek and its tributaries. It is also commonly called “The Glass Town” for its production of colored glass in the 19th century. The tradition lives on today at the Pairpont Glass Factory and Sandwich Glass Museum.

And like most towns in the area, tourism is the most important element affecting Sandwich’s economy today. But a few parts of its “living history” set it apart from the others, like the 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 Dan’l Webster Inn, the Dexter Grist Mill, the oldest on Cape Cod, and Shawme Lake. The town boardwalk is also popular in the warmer weather. The town is home to numerous art galleries, rare book and antique stores and a major portion of Otis Air National Guard Base.

The town of roughly 21,000 operates its own public school system with three schools (Forestdale, Oak Ridge and recently defunct Henry T. Wing) serving the town’s kindergarten through eighth grade students. Sandwich High School, located in East Sandwich, operates grades nine through twelve.

Sandwich Town Websites

Fire Department
115 Route 6A
Sandwich, MA 02563
(508) 888-0525
sandwichmass.org/DepartmentDetail.asp?ID=12

Police Department
117 Route 6A
Sandwich, MA 02563
(508) 888-1212
www.sandwichpd.com

Town of Sandwich
130 Main Street
Sandwich, MA 02563
(508) 888-0340
www.sandwichmass.org

Chamber of Commerce
128 Route 6A
(PO Box 744)
Sandwich, MA 02563
(508) 833-9755

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