The Benjamin Nye Homestead is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

Sandwich, Massachusetts Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. The town motto is ''Post tot Naufracia Portus'', "after so many shipwrecks, a haven". The population was 20,259 at the 2020 census. Histor ...

. The earliest portion of the 2.5-story timber-frame house was built in 1678 by Benjamin Nye, and has remained in the hands of his descendants for most of the time since then. It was apparently originally built as a

saltbox A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a wood ...

style house with an integral leanto section, with the rear of the house being raise to a full two stories, probably in the 19th century. The house was sold out of the Nye family to the state of Massachusetts in 1924, but was poorly maintained by the state. With the house threatened with demolition in 1962, the Nye Family Association acquired the property and restored the house. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1992. A

dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...

team conducted a study in 2012 establishing the build date. The Nye Family Association now operates the property as a historic house museum, featuring 18th century furnishings, and is open for tours from June through October.

References

External links

Nye Family Association
Historic house museums in Massachusetts Museums in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Sandwich, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-museum-stub

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