For the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America built a beautiful portico of Doric columns over the Rock.
This replaced the “monumental canopy,” whose corner stone had been laid Aug. 2, 1859, under the care of the Pilgrim Society.
At the beginning of the Revolution, a large section, split from the main rock, had been carried by the patriots of Plymouth with great ceremony and enthusiasm to the Town Square, and there placed beneath a Liberty Pole to rouse and maintain patriotic feeling.
In 1834 this fragment was removed to the front of Pilgrim Hall, and surrounded by an iron railing inscribed with the names of the Pilgrim Fathers. It was returned to the shore again in 1880, and the severed fragment fitted into its original position.
Finally in 1921, all parts of the Rock were strongly cemented together, and now rest, where the tide reaches it, under the new portico on the shore.
The park reservation surrounding the Rock, from the roadway eastward to the water, is the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is cared for and controlled by the State.
“Plymouth Rock does not mark a beginning or an end. It marks a revelation of that which is without beginning and without end, a purpose shining through eternity with a resplendent light, undimmed even by the imperfections of men, and a response, an answering purpose from those who oblivious, disdainful of all else, sought only an avenue for the immortal soul.”
—Calvin Coolidge
Address read at the opening of the Tercentenary Celebration at Plymouth, Dec. 21, 1920.
