Brady's Island Was Once a Whole Bunch Bigger

From Dave Brigham:

Since buying a vacation home on Cape Cod last fall, I've enjoyed exploring the town of Sandwich (see March 6, 2021, "A Historic Life Change on Cape Cod"). The oldest town on the Cape, Sandwich has some amazing historic homes, cool museums and great restaurants and bars that I look forward to patronizing as the pandemic eases. For me, though, finding the out-of-the-way, lesser-known places is what drives me.

Brady's Island fits that bill.

I noticed this sign along Route 6A the first time I visited the town after we'd bought our house. I'd been by here plenty of times in past years, making my way to the fantastic Marshland Restaurant or the cool boardwalk that leads to Town Neck Beach, but hadn't noticed the little conservation area hard by Mill Creek and its boggy environs. Experience has taught me that if somebody's name is attached to a small plot of land such as this one, there's a story behind it.

Named for Hugh Brady, who purchased the island (known at that time at Tobey's Island) around 1870, Brady's Island was once quite a bit larger, and fully surrounded by the brook and marshes. Brady and his wife raised 10 children on this site, which was connected to the rest of the village by a small bridge. Brady worked for the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, as well as the railroad, according to this article from the Sandwich Conservation Trust, which you should really check out, as it features great old photos and maps.

Sometime in the late 1920s or early '30s, the island was bisected by the newly constructed Route 6A. Known as the Old King's Highway, this route extends from the town of Bourne at the western end, to Provincetown at the eastern tip of the Cape (although in Eastham and Wellfleet, it combines with Route 6). In the 1950s, the Town of Sandwich built a combination police and fire station across the highway from Brady's Island. There was talk of building a new town hall on the site of the present conservation area. The town acquired the land in 1967, several years after the Brady family's former home had been torn down.

The island was saved from development, but not, however, from nature's progress. "For whatever the reasons, the effort to keep the area mowed diminished, and by the late 1990s invasive vegetation, notably Multiflora rose, was well established," John Cullity, president of the Sandwich Conservation Trust, writes in the article linked above. "In addition, the salt marsh edges all around the Sandwich Village inner marsh were filling in with phragmites, a sad loss of attractive views, from stretches of Route 6A and Tupper Road in particular."

There have been efforts since then to rid the island of invasive plant species. Last year, the Sandwich Department of Natural Resources "presented an interesting plan to the public.... Simply described by DNR Director David DeConto: 'We are trying to return the area into a meadow with ample parking, signage, gazebo and kayak dock/launch area. So far we have cleared the area of invasive vines, established the parking area and we will be installing the information kiosk soon,'" per Cullity's article.

As you can see below, there are still vines hanging from trees in the park, which I find very cool photo subjects.

Still, I saw plenty of evidence of clean-up efforts on this small parcel. I look forward to tracking progress at Brady's Island, and further exploring it in days to come.