Mmm...Old Sandwich

From Dave Brigham:

Helpful, humorous and hued in a homey fashion, the directional arrow above wasn't all that necesary on my short exploration of the Upper Shawme Dam in Sandwich, Mass., but I really appreciated it.

As often happens in advance of an adventure, I started on Google Maps. Zeroing in on the dam, which is located between Route 130 and Grove Street, I realized I could also take in the nearby Old Town Cemetery during my quick outing.

The dam is situated within the 40.6-acre Cook Farm Conservation Lands, which the Sandwich Conservation Trust acquired in 2003 from members of the Cook family. "This acquisition allowed the town and Commonwealth to rebuild the deteriorated 1812 dam which Samuel Wing and his brothers built for their cotton spinning mill – the first factory on Cape Cod," per the conservation trust's web site.

Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod, having been colonized in 1637 by settlers from Saugus, Massachusetts, per Wikipedia.

My short walk from the small parking lot along Route 130 was quite pleasant, as the path is plenty wide and there are a few relics hiding in the brush.

Before long, I was approaching the dam, which holds back Upper Shawme Lake from Shawme Lake, the latter of which eventually drains down to the Dexter Grist Mill near the center of Sandwich.

In order to rebuild the dam, conservators needed to remove "cedar logs and sheathing that made up the original outlet structure," according to the 2009 Annual Reports of the Town Officers of the Town of Sandwich (scroll down to page 92). The logs were found to "be intact and a fresh cedar scent emanated from the freshly-cut butt ends," the report continues.

In addition, the report estimates that the accompanying concrete fish ladder was installed in 1910.

Near the dam is a small boulder with a poem on a plaque, along with a tiny frog sculpture.

The poem (click on the photo to enlarge it) is by Hilaire Belloc, a "Franco-English writer and historian of the early 20th century," according to Wikipedia. "Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist."

Next I made my way to Grove Street and the aforementioned Old Town Cemetery.

Opened to great fanfare in 1663 (well, probably not), the boneyard contains approximately 200 memorials, according to a minimalist MACRIS manuscript. The last burial here occurred in 1939, according to this Sandwich MA Geocaching web page, which is a Girl Scout Gold Award Project.

Among the well-known Sandwich residents buried here, according to the Girl Scout page, are: Thomas Tupper, founder of Sandwich; Edmond Freeman, founder of Sandwich; Thomas Burgess, grandfather of author Thornton Burgess; and Benjamin Fessenden, owner and proprietor of the Fessenden Tavern, known today as the Dan'l Webster Inn and Spa.

For more posts about Sandwich, check these out:

July 23, 2021, "In Sandwich, No Bread, Just Dead"

May 28, 2021, "Brady's Island Was Once a Whole Bunch Bigger"

March 6, 2021, "A Historic Life Change on Cape Cod"

October 6, 2018, "Scratching Around the Flea Market"

Yodeling in Yarmouth (Not Really)

From Dave Brigham:

Spanning from Cape Cod Bay at its northern point to Nantucket Sound at its southern end, Yarmouth, Mass., was named for a seaside town along the eastern coast of England. According to the Cape Cod town's web site, it's unclear why the name Yarmouth was chosen for the settlement in 1639, although there is speculation. "Yarmouth, England, during the age of the Pilgrims, was an important seaport on the Yare River. Across the North Sea from Yarmouth, to the east is the Netherlands - the former home country of a portion of the Mayflower passengers. These Dutch passengers arrived in England via the port of Yarmouth, and therefore the naming of the new Cape township appears to be the tip of the cap to the English seaport."

I explored Yarmouth once before on a trip to the Cape (see July 26, 2015, "Cavalier Attitude About Motels"), so this past summer I decided to check out a bit more. Did I yodel my way through town? No, I didn't. But I did enjoy myself.

I chose my first destination after a friend mentioned the site in passing on Facebook, and from there I took a "let's see what I can find" approach.

Built in the late 1950s as a gift shop called The Barefoot Trader, this midcentury A-frame building along Route 28 in West Yarmouth is now home to the Cape Abilities Thrift Shop. The store "is a social enterprise started by Cape Abilities, a nonprofit providing jobs, homes, transportation, social and therapeutic services for people with disabilities across Cape Cod," according to the thrift shop's web site. "Our thrift store exists to provide employment and training for individuals of all abilities, promote awareness of the Cape Abilities mission, and raise revenue for all Cape Abilities programs."

As for The Barefoot Trader, it was a shop "described as a 'Polynesian Paradise' and sold gifts, sportswear, and even food 'that have been collected from the wide, wide world,'" according to this Historic Cape Cod article. The Barefoot Trader closed in the late 1980s.

The Cape Abilities shop and its large parking lot are situated at the southern tip of a cranberry bog. When I spotted the old truck and RV shown in the photos below, I thought they were just relics of times gone by. But I was wrong.

An outfit called Fresh From the Vine harvests and sells cranberries from this site, using these vehicles to both showcase and sell its products.

From that point, I headed east along Route 28. I really liked the water wheel installed inside The Yarmouth House restaurant.

The restaurant was opened in 1978 by Gerry Kounadis, a Greek immigrant who made his way to the Cape by way of Montreal, where he and his wife, Bessie, had operated a restaurant for decades. The Kounadis family continues to run this place, along with two other restaurants. As for the paddle wheel, Kounadis found one on the property when he bought the site. All these years later, the original wooden one has been replaced by a metal one, according to Kounadis's daughter, Angie Zambelis, quoted in this Cape Cod Times article.

Next door to the restaurant is Yarmouth Resort, which I believe is a residential operation these days, rather than a hotel.

After walking around a bit more, I decided to hop back in my car and head east and see what I could find. Within about a half mile, I stumbled across something safari-worthy.

Located in the parking lot of the shuttered India Big & Tall Shop ("Up to 9XL"), Tommy the Elephant was created by Tommy Neil, "who built the 5,000 pound pachyderm out of concrete and steel in 1979," according to this Roadside America entry. "Tommy's upraised trunk mimics the hooked shape of Cape Cod."

I'm not sure if this was Tommy's original location.

Continuing east for a little bit, I had to stop at the Lobster Boat Restaurant.

Overlooking the Parker River, the seafood joint has been in business for more than 30 years. The business also operates a wholesale operation next door, featuring a crusty old lobster boat in front.

.

For the final stop on my journey, I doubled back from the Lobster Boat to check out a closed eatery that I'd passed on the corner of Route 28 and West Yarmouth Road.

Opened around the turn of this century, Salty's appears to have gone out of business sometime in 2021.

That's it for Yarmouth. Make sure to check back in the near future for a post about another Cape Cod town, Sandwich.

In Which I Learn About West Medford's Slave Wall and a Related Estate

From Dave Brigham:

Having spent a bit of time in West Medford Square (see October 14, 2023, "I Went to West Medford Square by Mistake...But That's OK"), I was searching Google Maps for more sites to explore in that neck of the Massachusetts woods, when I stumbled across "The Cistern," which I wrote about recently (see November 4, 2023, "Cisterns Are Going It for Themselves"). Less than a mile away from that place on Lower Mystic Lake is the other map pin that intrigued me: Pomp's Wall.

I find a fair amount of cool historic stuff using this method. Located on Grove Street, across the commuter rail tracks from Playstead Park, Pomp's Wall is one of the few relics of Medford's slaveholding past. Built by a slave named Pomp (aka Pompeii or Pompey) in 1765, it is also known as The Slave Wall.

The inscription on the plaque reads, in part that Pomp, "a slave owned by Thomas Brooks" built the wall "as part of a decorative entrance to his house. This site was part of the estate of the Brooks family, which was first occupied in 1679 and once included some 400 acres of land."

A restoration of the wall was completed earlier this year, according to the Medford Historical Commmission. "The wall is laid in Flemish Bond, a decorative brick pattern that can now be seen clearly. Much of the wall is original 18th century brick and the mason [did] everything he [could] to preserve the hand made features....The bricks were stored to document their exact location so the wall [could be] rebuilt exactly as it was."

The Brooks family farmed their land and may have also owned a mill. MACRIS provides details about the wall and the family that owned Pomp, collected from a genealogy in the collection of the Medford Brooks Estate Land Trust Archives. "The Brooks family were large landowners in Medford beginning in the late 17th century. In 1660 Thomas Brooks...with his son-in-law Timothy Wheeler purchased 400 acres east of the Mystic Lake and River in Medford for £404....According to this genealogy, subdivisions of this land passed to several subsequent generations of the family, including Thomas’ grandson Samuel Brooks (1700-1768) and great grandson Thomas Brooks (1732-1799)."

"The park behind the Slave Wall was donated to the City of Medford in 1924 by the Brooks family," according to the plaque. Thomas Brooks Park is shown in the two photos below.

A fieldstone wall along the property line was also restored.

More from the wall plaque: "By 1765 Medford’s population included 49 slaves, many of whom were tied to the infamous Triangle Trade. Only Boston and Cambridge had larger slave populations. Nonetheless, Medford was an early center of anti-slavery activity. In 1783 Massachusetts became the first state to abolish slavery. Today the Slave Wall and the Slave Quarters at the Royall House are the only remaining physical reminders of slavery in the city. When Slaves were freed, many settled in West Medford which is today considered among the oldest continuous African-American communities in the United States."

Less than a mile north along Grove Street is the Shepherd Brooks Estate, which features a gorgeous Queen Anne-style home situated on expansive grounds adjacent to Oak Grove Cemetery. The large brick home was commissioned in 1880 by a descendant of the slaveholding Brooks family.

I was excited to learn that the estate grounds are free to roam, so I could get some great photos of the outside of the house, which was designed by Peabody and Stearns the well-known Boston architectural firm of the late 19th and early 20th century.

From MACRIS: "The Shepherd Brooks House is among the most architecturally distinguished late nineteenth-century 'summer residences' extant in Medford and the only estate to survive with extensive acreage of undevelopped land. Sheherd Brooks (1838-1922) lived in Medford during the summers from 1880 to 1922; during the rest of the year he resided at 90 Beacon Street in Boston. Brooks graduated from Harvard in 1857 and pursued throughout his life an interest in farming and horticulture for which his West Medford estate was well known along the East coast."

The home and carriage house are not open to visitors, as far as I can tell. The property, which is owned by the City of Medford, has been undergoing restoration with an eye toward "continued community benefit," per the estate's web site.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I'm always excited to learn about connections to the shameful parts of American history.