Wing Fort House Gets New 'Old' Look

The Wing Fort House has a brand-new look. Well, not brand new; the historic home in East Sandwich has been restored to look as it did during the pre-American Revolution era.

While preservation work has been in the process for decades, house caretaker David S. Wheelock said this work was furthered with new curator Christina Shipps. This past fall the Wing staff worked to uncover the original paint of the house, both inside and out.

Mr. Wheelock said this involved carefully scraping back layers of paint built up over the centuries to unearth the original color. Paint analysis allowed the team to find a modern paint color available that matched the original. This past fall, they painted the house to match what it would have looked like originally.

The team also removed the Victorian façade on the outside of the house and restored it to its colonial era look.

Mr. Wheelock said that with the preservation efforts that have been done over the past few years, he is confident that if Stephen Wing, the original owner of the house, walked through the door, he would recognize it as his home.

While Mr. Wing might be able to recognize the home, Mr. Wheelock said it is likely unrecognizable to Sandwich residents and past Wing Fort House visitors.

“The house today looks nothing like it did 10 years ago,” Mr. Wheelock said.

The original Wing Fort House was built in 1641 and is the oldest house in Massachusetts owned continuously by the same family. Wings lived on the property until the 1940s, when it was sold to the Wing Family of America Association to be turned into a museum of the family’s history.

Mr. Wheelock said work on the house is not done yet. In the future he hopes to continue archaeological studies, particularly under the former root cellar and areas on the property where there were once barns.

“We can learn a lot about the past from digging through colonial trash,” Mr. Wheelock said. “Everyone was just throwing their garbage through the nearest door.”

Garbage found during previous archaeological digs at the house revealed broken bits of ceramic, tobacco bowls and pipes, broken wine bottles, some porcelain and some farm animal bones. Some of these items can be seen through a glass panel on the floor.

In addition to artifacts found on the property, the house is littered with artifacts and memorabilia from different Wings across the country, including toys from Wings in Connecticut, portraits of Wings in Maine, and more.

“Everything in the house has a history to the family,” Mr. Wheelock said.

With the house’s new look comes a new exhibit at the history center across the street. The Wing Memorial History Center, which opened in 2018, has served as a larger and air-conditioned location for the family to preserve artifacts and documents susceptible to heat damage.

The center also allows the family to have more space to showcase its history and offers rotating exhibits showing glimpses into the family’s past.

Assistant curator Kelsey Cronin said the family has a long history and has been involved in many different industries, from farming to photography. The current exhibit on showcase in the center is an exhibit dedicated to families’ history in whaling.

The Wing family owned one of the largest whaling fleets in the world, including its flagship, The Charles Morgan, which Ms. Cronin said was the last and most successful whaling ship in the world.

Mr. Wheelock and Ms. Cronin say the museum and house are part of their work of encapsulating a fuller history of the Wings and teaching visitors, both Wing and non-Wing, about the family that lived here.

“We’re working to build an interpretive program and trying to understand what happened here through the different eras and families living here,” Mr. Wheelock said.

Wonderful work by the new curator and by preservationist carpenter/early American historian Dave Wheelock. Sandwich is blessed to have the Wing Family and the Nye Family first period homes. Folks, if you live in town and have not been to these places, get yourself over there and absorb the story of Sandwich first settlers.

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