Photograph by Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Nye, Benjamin, Homestead
Built in 1680 in the colonial architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1992. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Benjamin Nye Homestead is a historic house museum in Sandwich, Massachusetts. 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.”
Wikipedia article Benjamin Nye Homestead, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1992 · category: Building · built in 1680, colonial architecture.
National Register reference number.91001899- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 86 fires within 5 miles of Nye, Benjamin, Homestead between
2008 and 2020, burning about 179 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
35
Debris and open burning
27
Equipment and vehicle use
8
Natural
5
Smoking
4
Recreation and ceremony
4
Arson/incendiarism
3
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 2,720 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Nye, Benjamin, Homestead between 1816 and
1975: 1,846 Animalia, 608 Plantae, 157 Fungi, 100 Chromista, 7 Protozoa, 1 Bacteria, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon; E. J. Hehre and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
8 workings within 5 miles of Nye, Benjamin, Homestead: 5 past producers, 3 producers.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Sandwich, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 1997 and 2018: 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 lightning, 3 hail, 3 flood.
The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Lightning struck the Oak Ridge School in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Students were evacuated while firefighters made sure the lightning didn't start a fire, then returned to class.
Flooding in Sandwich on the Mid-Cape Highway Service Road between Exits 3 and 4. The Automated Surface Observation System platform at Barnstable Municipal Airport measured a Storm Total Rainfall of 5.14 inches.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
4,886 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Statement of significance
Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: nationally statewide Xlocally D Applicable National Register Criteria Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Architecture Exporation/Settlement Industry JE Period of Significance ca. 1680-1941 Significant Dates ca. 1750 1816 Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person Architect/Builder N/A Unknown State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. The Benjamin Nye Homestead, Sandwich, housed a single family for seven generations and was the site of locally important milling enterprises from the mid 17th through the mid 19th century.
The house 1s believed to have been built in several phases between ca. 1680 and the early 19th century and demonstrates a single property's evolution over a period of some 240 years. While the mills themselves are no longer extant, the Benjamin Nye Homestead retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, teeling, and association with a significant family and with early Sandwich's once-primary agricultural life, and thus fulfils Nationa) Register Criteria A and C on the local level. Sandwich was first settled by Europeans in 1637 and incorporated in 1639. From the first, settlement followed along the major native trail spanning the Cape, most of which is present-day Route 6A but a section of which took a southern turn, along Old County Road, the location of the Nye house.
Much of Sandwich's early development occurred west of the nominated property. The first meetinghouse was constructed in 1638 in the Village of Sandwich, almost two miles west of the Nye property. A halfmile east of Sandwich Village was a group of houses called Spring Hill, which would also become the location of the Quaker meetinghouse.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 91001899, 24 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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