Things to Do in Sandwich: The Oldest Town on Cape Cod

Heritage Museums & Gardens: A Collector's Estate Turned Public Grounds

Heritage Museums & Gardens was founded in 1969 as "Heritage Plantation of Sandwich" by Josiah K. Lilly III and his wife, on 100 acres that had formerly belonged to Charles O. Dexter, a rhododendron hybridizer. That Dexter connection still shapes the grounds directly: the gardens hold 125 of the 145 known Dexter rhododendron cultivars, typically blooming from Memorial Day weekend through mid-June, which makes late May and early June the single best window to see the property at its most distinctive.

The rest of the grounds reflect Lilly's own collecting. The J.K. Lilly III Automobile Museum includes President Taft's 1909 White Motor Company steam car, a genuinely notable piece of presidential and automotive history to find on a Cape Cod estate. A 1908 Looff Carousel, which Lilly purchased in 1968 and opened to the public in 1972, was originally built for an amusement park in Meridian, Mississippi, before making its way to Sandwich. An adventure park was added to the property in 2015, extending it beyond its original museum-and-garden footprint.

Sandwich Glass Museum: A Cleaner Glassmaking Story Than Most

The Sandwich Glass Museum houses rare Victorian-era glass from the historic Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, which operated from 1825 to 1888 after being founded by Deming Jarves, alongside contemporary glasswork. Beyond the display cases, the museum runs hourly live glassblowing demonstrations at a furnace maintained at 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, plus an hourly historical film - both good reasons to plan a visit around the top of the hour rather than treating it as a browse-whenever stop.

Town Hall Square Historic District: The Old Town Center

The Town Hall Square Historic District has been listed on the National Register since October 31, 1975, and was expanded to 220 acres in 2010. Within it, the Dexter Grist Mill traces to 1637, with the current structure dating to roughly 1654 and a restoration in 1961 - it sits alongside Shawme Pond and its historic dike, still a working piece of the old mill-town layout. The First Church of Christ dates to 1847, and the Hoxie House, built in the mid-17th century, is described by the Massachusetts Historical Commission as likely the oldest extant house in the area; it was restored in 1959 and now operates as a museum.

Together, the mill, the pond, the church, and the Hoxie House make this the one part of Sandwich where a visitor can walk through the town's oldest layer of history in a single, compact loop, rather than driving between scattered sites.

The Sandwich Boardwalk

The Sandwich Boardwalk runs 1,350 feet from Scorton Creek to the Cape Cod Canal and was originally built in 1875. National Geographic named it one of the top ten boardwalks in the country in July 2010. It has been rebuilt more than once after storm damage, most recently reopening in summer 2024 - worth knowing going in, since the boardwalk standing today is the product of ongoing maintenance against a genuinely exposed stretch of coastline, not a single 19th-century structure left untouched.

Green Briar Nature Center and Scusset Beach State Reservation

The Green Briar Nature Center & Jam Kitchen, in East Sandwich, is affiliated with the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and tied to author and conservationist Thornton W. Burgess, a Sandwich native - an East Sandwich-specific stop distinct from the historic district and museum cluster closer to the town center.

Scusset Beach State Reservation covers 459 acres at the east end of the Cape Cod Canal and includes a 3,000-foot stone jetty and a fishing pier extending from the canal, plus 98 RV camping pitches and 5 tent sites for anyone looking to stay overnight rather than just visit for the day.

What This Page Doesn't Cover

This page is deliberately limited to what the underlying research could confirm. It does not catalog Sandwich's seasonal festivals, town events calendar, restaurants, or smaller local attractions beyond what's listed above, because that research wasn't done for this pass. For a fuller and more current picture of what's happening in Sandwich on any given week, the Town of Sandwich's own website and local visitor resources are the right place to check directly, rather than relying on a static page like this one for anything time-sensitive.