Guide to Historic Plymouth: Localities and Objects of Interest

by A. S. Burbank

Returning to Court street (the main street) from the Monument grounds, and passing the head of Old Colony park, we soon see on our left a building with a Doric portico, standing a little way from the street. This is Pilgrim Hall, erected in 1824 by the Pilgrim Society as a monumental hall to the memory of the Pilgrims. In 1880, without taking down the walls, it was re-roofed and refloored with steel beams and terra cotta blocks at a cost of over $15,000 by Joseph Henry Stickney, Esq., a wealthy Baltimore merchant of Boston nativity, who on a casual visit to Plymouth became so impressed of preserving with the greatest care the interesting relics of the Pilgrims there deposited, that he most liberally made this large expenditure to secure these precious memorials from loss by fire. At the same time he provided for better classification and exhibition of the articles, those immediately connected with the Pilgrims being deposited, mostly in glass cases, in the main hall, while an interesting museum of antique curiosities was arranged in the room below. Exteriorly, marked improvement was made by raising the Doric porch to the height of the main building, and repainting and sanding the whole front in imitation of stone. Quite a change was made at the same time in the front area by the removal back to the Landing-place of the portion of Plymouth Rock, which for forty-six years had here been a prominent object.

The hall is kept open daily (including Sundays in the summer season), at regular hours, for the accommodation of visitors, a fee of twenty-five cents being charged. These fees are the only income of the Pilgrim Society, the fund so accumulated being devoted to the care of the Pilgrim relics, the monuments, grounds, and historic points of the Pilgrim locality in Plymouth.

To the improvements made by Mr. Stickney, very important and extensive ones were carried out by the Society in the periods from February to May 1911, and from December 1911 to March 1912, the hall being closed to the public during the work. Everything of wood, from the basement to the roof was removed from the ante-rooms, and also from the main hall and the one beneath. With steel beams, terra cotta blocks, cement and marble, thorough work was done in fireproofing the whole structure, so that the Doric entrance portico, which is separated from the building by a thick brick wall, now remains as the only combustible part. The cost of these radical improvements, which seem to sufficiently insure the protection of the priceless collection of Pilgrim relics, was about $15,000, paid from the visitors fee fund. It is in contemplation, and plans have been prepared, for changing the Doric portico from wood to granite, with monolithic columns. About $20,000 will be needed for this much desired object, which will make Pilgrim Hall, in its entirety, a complete and harmonious memorial of the Forefathers; but this laudable project will have to await the slow accumulation of an annual income from visitors fees, or the possible generous gift of a descendant or admirer of our Pilgrim ancestors.

The interior, with marble floors and wainscots, and walls freshly colored in neutral tints which set off the pictures to much advantage, now presents a very neat and attractive appearance.

LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

In the marble vestibule hangs a large picture of the “Landing,” done in distemper, which was presented to the Society by Robert G. Shaw of Boston. At the right is the curator’s room, on the walls of which hang a portrait of King James I., together with a number of maps and local views of Plymouth, illustrative of changes which have taken place. Over the entrance to the main hall is a large gilded copy of the seal of the Colony, reproduced from the “Book of Laws,” printed in 1685. The original seal was adopted probably in 1625. It was taken away during the administration of the infamous Governor Andros, and never recovered, as far as is known. This copy is supposed to have been the gift of Samuel Nicholson, of the Boston Common Council, a native of Plymouth. At the left of the entrance is the stairway to the lower hall, and the sanitary conveniences of the building.

The main hall is forty-six by thirty-nine feet, with walls twenty-two feet high, and is lighted entirely from the roof. At the east end is the large picture of the “Landing,” thirteen by sixteen feet, painted by Henry Sargent, of Boston, an amateur artist, and presented by him to the Society in 1834. Its estimated value was $3,000, and the massive frame cost about $400. At the left is a portrait of the venerable Dr. James Thacher, the first secretary of the Pilgrim Society. He was the author of Thacher’s Military Journal and a History of Plymouth, which has been considered one of the best ever published. The picture upon the right is a fine painting and most excellent likeness of the gentleman who in 1880 so disinterestedly and generously remodeled and beautified Pilgrim Hall,—Joseph Henry Stickney, Esq., of Baltimore. The portrait was painted by D. G. Pope, a Baltimore artist, and in subject and execution is worthy of its place in this Pilgrim temple. Beneath the picture the Society has placed a bronze memorial tablet in grateful remembrance of Mr. Stickney’s benefactions.

In the middle of the south wall is hung the large copy of Weir’s Embarkation from Delft Haven, from the large painting in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, done for the Society by Edgar Parker. It is flanked by several large portraits designated in the catalogue, including one of Hon. Daniel Webster.

In the centre of the west side hangs the noble gift of ex-Gov. Alexander H. Rice, of Massachusetts, Charles Lucy’s large painting of the Departure from Delft Haven. It is of great value, and at a prize exhibition in England won the first premium of a thousand guineas. It is altogether different in color and tone from either of the others, and will bear close sturdy. On its right and left are portraits of Washington and Edward Everett, with pictures of the house at Austerfield, England, where Governor Bradford was born, and the only copy extant of the earliest map of New England territory, made by William Hack about 1663.