Plymouth
It is a city with thriving industries and all the pleasures to be found in New England’s summer resorts. If you wish to study the historic side, it would be wise for you to close your eyes to the modern side of this community and drive along Route 3 to Chilton Street where you turn left and then right again at the waterfront and continue to
Plymouth Rock
PLYMOUTH ROCK
The rock is located easily. A beautiful canopy of granite has been erected over the historic stone. To protect it from souvenir hunters, it was necessary to build a steel fence around it. To the stranger who does not know the true topography of Massachusetts but who recalls various poems and songs, it is always a surprise not to find a “stern and rock-bound coast.” Sand is in great abundance, the beaches and sand bluffs extending in all directions. Recalling your history, you can picture the Mayflower failing to weather the Cape, putting in to this safe but shallow harbor. Myles Standish had already explored and reported back at Provincetown, where the ship had anchored, “good water in the brook and timber on the hills for homes.” Winter was coming and it was advisable to settle, and so these heroic people landed here. One hundred and two souls, according to history, had journeyed to this new country to find religious freedom for themselves. Turning from the rock, climb the stairway leading up the grassy bluff to
Cole’s Hill
This is where the Pilgrims buried their fast diminishing band in the dead of night so that the Indians lurking in the forests could not determine how many were left. It is a recorded fact that of the one hundred and two Pilgrims who landed, nearly one-half were buried during that first sad winter. The Indian monument standing near the sepulchre is of Massasoit, the great sachem of the Wampanoags. He was the friend of the Pilgrims and, in reality, their preserver for, without his kindness, they all would have perished. From Cole’s Hill, go directly left on Carver Street to
Leyden Street
Originally named First Street. Just to the left of the junction of Carver and Leyden Streets was the site of the first “Common House” raised in Plymouth. This interesting street has many markers on it telling the story of Goodman, Winslow, Brewster and Howland.