Homestead Trust which was established in 1904, became the owner of a strip of land running from Cape Cod Bay to Scorton Creek. In 1926, there was a subdivision made which is the plan mentioned in most of the deeds to properties in Sandwich Downs. Included in this plan on the oceanfront is a parcel known as Deborah Wing Park to which most deeds grant rights of use. The old house on Wing Boulevard at the farm was the Wing homestead and was owned by Samuel D. Hannah a sole surviving trustee of the Homestead Trust. Over the years erosion has eaten away at the dunes so that the park is now underwater.
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This picture was taken circa 1955. The pathway runs from the end of Beachway West. All but the dunes on the upper right is now on the beach. Note the beach buggy. We used to drive Jeeps down this path to the beach.
The section of Sandwich Downs that is now Bemis Road was deeded to the Weeks family as a part of Blake Farm. It is believed that turnips were grown here during WW I. This deed was bordered on a cranberry bog which is between 89 and 99 Wing Boulevard West.
The unnamed crossroad is variously called The Cross Road and Skunk Hollow. The Dotto house, last on the left, was used by the Coast Guard during WW II. Their dogs were in a kennel which was where the first two houses now stand. Telephone wires led from the Dotto house between the dunes you can be seen in the above picture to report stations all along the beach which the Coast Guardsmen patrolled in search of possible enemy landings. There was at one time a road running from Wing Boulevard East to Carlton Shores which during WW II was used as an anti-aircraft artillery training facility.
In the late ’60s, we petitioned the Town, State, and Federal governments for the installation of the groynes (erroneously called jetties).
Skid Schermerhorn
July 2011