Sandwich is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in Carroll County,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

, United States. Its population was 1,466 at the 2020 census. Sandwich includes the villages of Center Sandwich and North Sandwich. Part of the

White Mountain National Forest The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) is a federally managed forest contained within the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was established in 1918 as a result of the Weeks Act of 1911; federal acquisition of land had alre ...

is in the north, and part of

Squam Lake Squam Lake is a lake located in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, United States, south of the White Mountains, straddling the borders of Grafton, Carroll, and Belknap counties. The largest town center on the lake is Holderness. Th ...

is in the southwestern corner of the town. As such, Sandwich lies on the boundary between New Hampshire's Lakes Region and White Mountains Region. The

Sandwich Range The Sandwich Range is located in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the United States, north of the Lakes Region and south of the Kancamagus Highway. Although the range is not outstanding for its elevation, it is very rugged and has excelle ...

of the White Mountains lies partially within the town, as does the namesake Sandwich Mountain. The town is home to the Sandwich Fair, a popular agricultural fair that occurs every October.

History

Chartered in 1763 by

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

Governor

Benning Wentworth Benning Wentworth (July 24, 1696 – October 14, 1770) was an American merchant and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1766. While serving as governor, Wentworth is best known for issuing several l ...

, the land was considered so inaccessible that the grant was enlarged, making Sandwich one of the largest towns in the state. It was named in honor of

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS (13 November 1718 – 30 April 1792) was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten. During his life ...

, said to be the inventor of the

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

. The earliest European settlers arrived in 1767. By 1830 Sandwich had grown to a population of 2,700, nearly double the current (2020) population. At that time the town contained farms, stores, mills, churches, schools, carpenters,

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

s, and

wheelwright A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkwr ...

s. By the end of the 1800s much of the population had left Sandwich to live in cities to the west. Sandwich began to be an attraction for visitors, summer residents and artists, which continues to this day. The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen began in Sandwich as "Sandwich Home Industries" in 1920, and continues statewide today. Each fall the town hosts the Sandwich Fair. The Durgin Bridge, built in 1864, is a

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

in the eastern section of town.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

, the town has a total area of , of which are land and are water, comprising 3.47% of the town. Sandwich is drained to the east by the Bearcamp and

Cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

rivers, to the northwest by the Beebe River, to the southwest by

, and to the south by the Red Hill River. The Bearcamp and Cold rivers are part of the

Saco River The Saco River (Abenaki: ''Sαkóhki'') is a river in northeastern New Hampshire and southwestern Maine in the United States. It drains a rural area of of forests and farmlands west and southwest of Portland, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean ...

watershed, draining east into Maine, while the remainder of the town is part of the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into M ...

watershed, draining south to Massachusetts. Mount Israel, elevation above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

, is at the center. Part of the Squam Mountains is in the west. Part of the

is in the north, including the Sandwich Mountain (also known as Sandwich Dome), the highest point in town as well as in Carroll County. The primary settlement in the town is Center Sandwich. Other villages include Sandwich, North Sandwich, and Whiteface.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2010, there were 1,326 people, 617 households, and 405 families residing in the town. There were 1,057 housing units, of which 440, or 41.6%, were vacant. 373 of the vacant units were for seasonal or recreational use. The racial makeup of the town was 98.0%

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, 0.2%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.2% Native American, 0.5%

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n, 0.1%

Native Hawaiian Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawa ...

or Pacific Islander, 0.0% some other race, and 1.1% from two or more races. 0.5% of the population were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race. Of the 617 households, 19.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.1% were headed by married couples living together, 7.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 27.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.9% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15, and the average family size was 2.59. In the town, 16.3% of the population were under the age of 18, 3.8% were from 18 to 24, 15.9% from 25 to 44, 40.9% from 45 to 64, and 23.2% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 53.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males. For the period 2011–2015, the estimated median annual income for a household was $57,000, and the median income for a family was $63,824. Male full-time workers had a median income of $57,917 versus $40,804 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the town was $31,599. 10.0% of the population and 7.3% of families were below the poverty line. 22.3% of the population under the age of 18 and 5.3% of those 65 or older were living in poverty.

Transportation

Four New Hampshire state highways cross the town: * NH 25 crosses the town's southeastern corner, from Moultonborough in the south to Tamworth in the east. It is locally known as Whittier Highway. * NH109 enters from Moultonborough in the south and terminates in the Center Sandwich, near the fairgrounds, at NH 113. It is known locally as Wentworth Hill Road. *NH 113 is the main east-west route across town, entering from Holderness in the west, where it is known as Holderness Road. In Center Sandwich, it becomes Main Street, and at the northern terminus of NH 109, it turns north along Maple Street. The name changes to North Sandwich Road until the village of North Sandwich, where it turns onto Beede Flats Road before entering Tamworth to the east. * NH 113A has its western terminus in North Sandwich at NH 113, then goes north along Whiteface Road before turning hard to the east along Chase Road and entering Tamworth at the northeastern corner of town.

Sites of interest

* John Davidson's Club Sandwich * Sandwich Historical Society Museum * Sandwich Fair *

, site of some location filming for the 1981 feature film '' On Golden Pond''

Notable people

* Isaac Adams (1802–1883), inventor, Massachusetts politician * Dixi Crosby (1800–1873), surgeon, educator, born in the town * Claude Rains (1889–1967), earned four Oscar nominations for supporting actor, portrayed Captain Renault in the film ''Casablanca''; lived in Sandwich from 1956 until his death in March 1967 * "Long John" Wentworth (1815–1888), Illinois politician, former mayor of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

* Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), the founder of cybernetics, summered at his cottage in Sandwich until his death in 1964. Wiener and his wife Margaret are buried in Sandwich

References

External links

*
Sandwich Historical Society

* ttp://www.squamlakes.org/ Squam Lakes Association {{authority control Towns in Carroll County, New Hampshire Towns in New Hampshire