The people who inhabited the lands of Sandwich’s Heritage Museums & Gardens.

In 2024, Heritage Museums & Gardens celebrates its 55th journey from frozen ground to buds of new life, to the explosion of colors against a green tableau, to the turning of still more yellows, crimsons, and browns, and ultimately back to the barren sticks and frozen earth from which they started. And while five years beyond half-a-century can seem sometimes like an eternity—it approached the average life expectancy of a Puritan in New England circa 1630—the lands that the museum and gardens now call home have much longer memories, and have borne witness to quite a few distinct inhabitants. Jennifer Madden, Heritage’s Director of Collections & Exhibitions, has conducted continual research in her 31 years of working here, and she frequently shares with the public the findings she has unearthed. Last August, she presented a lesson (from which this article draws) at a free “Light Bites and Museum Insights” event for members that chronicles the history of some of the location’s notable forebears—and her account reveals just how versatile the land has been for the people who lived here. From the name “Heritage,” one might assume that just one family line passed the property down across the ages, but such is not the case—and the history of these fields, planted beds, and woods is all the richer for their eclectic succession of human inhabitants. In a sense, if you take them all together, the stories of these lands function as a microcosm for many facets the Cape’s broader history, for they reflect trends of their times, all the way...