Happy 75th Anniversary,
Sandwich Central School!
~ 75 years of outstanding education in Sandwich ~
SHS Director Jim Mykland in front of
Sandwich Central School
Celebrate this important anniversary with SCS and SHS Staff on Thursday, June 12, 5:00 PM...
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Details in the press release below...
Sandwich Central School
Press Release
75th Birthday Celebration
The Inter-Lakes School District is excited and proud to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of Sandwich Central School. The building, which opened in September of 1950, provided students and families with a centralized public education in a modern facility. To commemorate this impressive milestone, Sandwich Central School and the Sandwich Historical Society will be hosting a 75th Birthday Party on Thursday, June 12, at 5:00 p.m. at Sandwich Central School. Staff, students, and families, from the past and present, are welcome and encouraged to join us. The event will harken back to the 1950’s with a pot-luck style picnic, live music, and games. Guests should plan to arrive at 5:00 p.m. with opening remarks beginning at 5:15 p.m. Bring your chairs and blankets!
If interested parties have historical photographs of Sandwich Central School and are willing to share them on a slideshow, please send them to SCS Principal, Jeremy Hillger, at [email protected].
Press Release
75th Birthday Celebration
The Inter-Lakes School District is excited and proud to celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of Sandwich Central School. The building, which opened in September of 1950, provided students and families with a centralized public education in a modern facility. To commemorate this impressive milestone, Sandwich Central School and the Sandwich Historical Society will be hosting a 75th Birthday Party on Thursday, June 12, at 5:00 p.m. at Sandwich Central School. Staff, students, and families, from the past and present, are welcome and encouraged to join us. The event will harken back to the 1950’s with a pot-luck style picnic, live music, and games. Guests should plan to arrive at 5:00 p.m. with opening remarks beginning at 5:15 p.m. Bring your chairs and blankets!
If interested parties have historical photographs of Sandwich Central School and are willing to share them on a slideshow, please send them to SCS Principal, Jeremy Hillger, at [email protected].
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The Legend of Suneta
Legend has it that Suneta was an Abenaki maiden who lived along the shores of Squam Lake. After a forced marriage ceremony to an old chieftain, Suneta’s lover Anonis, who had been away, returned to retrieve her. A fearful storm erupted, Anonis was struck by the angry chief’s arrow and drowned while Suneta was struck by lightning and turned to stone.
This stone of legend stood on a ledge at the narrows of a cove on Squam Lake in Sandwich. When viewed from a certain point, you can make out Suneta’s profile and headdress. In 1885, the entrance to the cove was widened and the Suneta stone was moved to a farm in Holderness where she remained until 2024.
Today, Suneta serves as a reminder that this land we walk upon was land stewarded by natives for over 400 generations. There are echoes beneath your feet that can still be heard if you are willing to still your mind and listen to your heart.
The Abenaki
The Abenaki, or “The People of the Dawn Land”, were indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of the U.S. and Canada. They referred to this land as N’Dakinna and were allied with the larger Wabenaki Confederacy of Algonquin speakers.
Locally, they were members of the Penacook band, living along the Merrimack River Valley while subsisting on a nomadic lifestyle of hunting, fishing, trapping, farming and foraging. It is estimated that there may have been as many as 5,000 living in central New Hampshire prior to European settlement.
The Abenaki lived in bands of extended families. These bands came together in the spring and summer at seasonal encampments. One such settlement was at the outlet of Squam Lake into Little Squam Lake in Holderness. There is little evidence of Abenaki encampments in Sandwich although native artifacts have been found along our rivers and lakes.
Today, we are called upon to be stewards of this land. The earth is our mother, this land is our shared heritage. Our histories and fates are intertwined. The Abenaki’s enduring relationship with this land, based on reciprocity and caretaking for future generations, provides a model for our stewardship of this land we call home.
This stone of legend stood on a ledge at the narrows of a cove on Squam Lake in Sandwich. When viewed from a certain point, you can make out Suneta’s profile and headdress. In 1885, the entrance to the cove was widened and the Suneta stone was moved to a farm in Holderness where she remained until 2024.
Today, Suneta serves as a reminder that this land we walk upon was land stewarded by natives for over 400 generations. There are echoes beneath your feet that can still be heard if you are willing to still your mind and listen to your heart.
The Abenaki
The Abenaki, or “The People of the Dawn Land”, were indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of the U.S. and Canada. They referred to this land as N’Dakinna and were allied with the larger Wabenaki Confederacy of Algonquin speakers.
Locally, they were members of the Penacook band, living along the Merrimack River Valley while subsisting on a nomadic lifestyle of hunting, fishing, trapping, farming and foraging. It is estimated that there may have been as many as 5,000 living in central New Hampshire prior to European settlement.
The Abenaki lived in bands of extended families. These bands came together in the spring and summer at seasonal encampments. One such settlement was at the outlet of Squam Lake into Little Squam Lake in Holderness. There is little evidence of Abenaki encampments in Sandwich although native artifacts have been found along our rivers and lakes.
Today, we are called upon to be stewards of this land. The earth is our mother, this land is our shared heritage. Our histories and fates are intertwined. The Abenaki’s enduring relationship with this land, based on reciprocity and caretaking for future generations, provides a model for our stewardship of this land we call home.
Sugar Maples
Two recently planted Sugar Maples will be dedicated to Janet E. Brown and Bruce and Nancy Montgomery on Saturday, June 29, 1:00 PM as part of our opening day events. Check back for more information on these special members of the Historical Society and community.
Gift Shop
Purple Martin House
This structure is a Purple Martin birdhouse styled to look like a church. It is marked on the inside with the date 1936, the year in which it was built, though we do not know who built it. Originally, the house sat perched upon a pole in the field of the Wentworth house on Wentworth Hill. As you can see in the photograph, it was a very tall pole, possibly twenty feet high.
The Purple Martins can be seen happily fluttering around their houses in the photo as they prefer to live high above the ground in open spaces away from trees or structures. The fields on Wentworth Hill were an ideal habitat.
At the time this house was built and the photo taken, there were over twenty colonies of Purple Martins in the State of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, by the end of the 20th century, there were only three or four, mostly near the seacoast.
There have not been Purple Martins in Sandwich or the Lakes Region for many years; therefore, it is no surprise this house was taken down from its pole and put away. For many years it sat in a barn at Chestnut Manor, now the Isaac Adams Homestead, gathering dust until Jill Emerson Rawson donated the house to the Historical Society. Trustee Ben Bullard took the house to his workshop and beautifully restored it.
The Purple Martins can be seen happily fluttering around their houses in the photo as they prefer to live high above the ground in open spaces away from trees or structures. The fields on Wentworth Hill were an ideal habitat.
At the time this house was built and the photo taken, there were over twenty colonies of Purple Martins in the State of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, by the end of the 20th century, there were only three or four, mostly near the seacoast.
There have not been Purple Martins in Sandwich or the Lakes Region for many years; therefore, it is no surprise this house was taken down from its pole and put away. For many years it sat in a barn at Chestnut Manor, now the Isaac Adams Homestead, gathering dust until Jill Emerson Rawson donated the house to the Historical Society. Trustee Ben Bullard took the house to his workshop and beautifully restored it.