Sands-Willets House
Take a 360 degree panoramic tour of the Sands-Willets house!
The Sands-Willets House (circa 1735)
336 Port Washington Blvd.
Port Washington, NY 11050
516-365-9074
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Museum Hours & Tours​: Summer 2024
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Tours in July and August will be on the following Wednesdays at 11 am:
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July 10
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July 17
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July 31
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August 7
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August 14
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August 21
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August 28
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Tours will resume in the Spring, 2025
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Duration is about an hour. $10 per person; $5 for children under 10
Come and explore how the Sands and Willets families lived in our historic home.
Our two period kitchens display their Colonial and post-Colonial roots and show how the Sands women spent their days cooking in the beehive oven and on the hearth, doing laundry without any conveniences, making candles, and much, much more. ​
Our Toy Room is dedicated to children’s activities: historic toys, games, schoolbooks from the 1700s, and children’s samplers from the 1700s and 1800s. The Scouting Room shows the evolution of both Boy and Girl Scouting.
The remainder of our period rooms, including the two parlors and the dining room, show how the second family of this house, the Willets family, lived. Also, certain segments from our past WWI Home Front exhibition are still on display by popular demand and show how women contributed to our success in the war, including The Farmerettes and The Canning Train, and Women: Over Here & Over There. The front parlor retains the entirety of The Suffragists presentation.
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The Cow Neck Peninsula Historical Society owns, maintains and operates the Sands-Willets House as a public museum, educational center and exhibition venue. The house is typical of the prosperous Long Island farmhouses of the 18th and 19th centuries that grew to fit the needs of the families who lived in them. It is one of the few buildings of its kind still standing in the Town of North Hempstead and Nassau County. The house, built on a peninsula known in earlier times as ‘Cow Neck’ is a Village of Flower Hill Historic Landmark, is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and is featured as a historical site on the New York State Revolutionary War Heritage Trail.
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This grand homestead is named for two distinguished Long Island families. First were the Sands family, merchants and farmers, who built and lived in the original west wing of the house from c.1735 to 1845. In the late 1600s, the Sands were among the first English families to settle on Cow Neck. Seven brothers, who were all born in the Sands (western) wing of the house, served and fought in the American Revolution. One of these brothers, minuteman, Colonel John Sands IV, 1737-1811, was with George Washington's army at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights.
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The Willets were the second family to give their name to the house. In 1845, Edmund Willets purchased the original Sands homestead and its surrounding farm. Willets was a prominent Quaker and an active abolitionist prior to the Civil War. In 1850, Willets built and connected a large Greek-Revival style building to the east end of the old Sands house creating the final footprint of
the Sands-Willets House. Over the years, the Willets’ made many changes to the exterior and interior of old Sands wing giving it the appearance we see today. In 1965, Miss Eliza Willets, a descendant of Edmund, passed away, after living in the house for many years. In 1967, the Historical Society purchased the house from her estate.
The Sands-Willets House has been undergoing restoration and renovations ever since it was purchased by the Society. Starting with with the restoration of its Colonial Hearth Kitchen in the Sands wing and the refurbishment of the high 19th century ceilings in the Willets wing, the decades have seen the additions of an electrical system overhaul, the installation of an air conditioning system, a new heating system and the house’s exterior surface painted and painted again. However, the preservation process is a continuing one demanding constant attention to this historical treasure for it to continue to be the educational resource that it is today
