SUMMER STREET AND MORTON PARK
Summer street leads westerly from Market Street, being one of the first streets laid out. Here may be seen two of the oldest houses in Plymouth, viz.: the Richard Sparrow House on the left of the street and a short distance from Market Street and the Leach House a few steps beyond at the Corner of Spring Street, once known as Spring Lane. This house was built by George Bonum in 1679.
The Sparrow House is presumed to have been built by Richard Sparrow in 1640. If so, it is the oldest house in Plymouth. Inside it is distinctive of the early 17th century era with its great fireplace and its brick oven.
Note: Spring Street has been referred to as Spring Lane and Baptist Hill, the latter designation derived from the fact that a Baptist chapel occupied a lot for many years on the west side a few steps from Summer Street.
This house is now used as craftsman’s shop by the Plymouth Potters, and is open to visitors.
Plymouth Pottery is unique in that it is made up of local red-firing clay by former pupils of a State Vocational Project—now organized into a co-operative guild.
Many pieces have an early American flavor and the hand-ground glazes give interesting and unusual effects. Many persons have called these pieces “heirlooms of the future.”
Summer Street follows the brook along which were many manufacturing concerns a short generation ago. It leads to the wooded area of the town past Oak Grove and Pine Hills Cemeteries to Morton Park, a woodland sanctuary of nearly 340 acres situated about a mile from the town’s center. This land was given to the town by a group of Plymouth citizens in 1889, headed by Mr. Nathaniel Morton, who was himself a generous contributor.
The Park includes two lakes of sparkling fresh water, Little Pond which covers approximately 40 acres and where accommodations are provided for picnics and bathing, and Billington Sea, covering an area of over three hundred acres.
THE HOWLAND HOUSE—Built in 1666—Restored 1941
The only house in Plymouth where Pilgrims once lived