The First Street
NOW LEYDEN STREET
Since it was the twenty-first of December when the first exploring party landed in Plymouth, and winter was fast closing in, the first work to be undertaken by the men of the Mayflower was to provide shelter for their families and a storage place for their supplies.
A Common House was the first to be built, and other houses were added as those who survived the fatal epidemic were able “in their great weakness” to accomplish the heavy task. They tenderly cared for the sick and dying, and toiled through the winter weather with incredible courage, and an unshaken faith; when spring came the Mayflower sailed on her homeward voyage, but not one of the Pilgrim Company relinquished his fixed purpose and returned to England. The women bravely supported the men, and were determined to make and maintain their homes and rear their children in this new land of opportunity for civil and religious liberty.
Along the bank of the brook, the Pilgrims found cleared land, the abandoned cornfields of a tribe of native Indians who had perished about three years before in another mysterious epidemic. High land rose from the shore to a hill beyond, and following the ascent, the first street was laid out.
Along this pathway, Governor Carver portioned to each person a lot of land, each plot to be of the same size: three rods long and half a rod wide. The company was divided into nineteen families, and each family was to build its own house, which was to front the street, with a garden behind, those on the south side sloping down to the brook. The lots were to be inclosed with high palings for protection. The houses are described as built of hewn plank, the roofs thatched with swamp grass.
A partial plan of the location of the allotments was roughly drawn by William Bradford, and may still be seen at the Registry of Deeds on Russell St. in Plymouth. Seven houses were built during the first winter. It was not until March that the last of the women and children who had been sheltered during the winter on the Mayflower, were brought on shore to live.
The Common House was the first to be finished. It sheltered the men working on shore; the community assembled there on the Sabbath, until the lower room in the Fort was ready for this purpose; there the Colony business was transacted, and the first “Court Days”, from which the New England institution of the Town Meeting was to develop, were held. It was used, too, as a hospital for the sick, and after the dwelling houses were built, it served as a store house. It is marked with a tablet:
COMMON HOUSE
This tablet is erected by the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts to mark
the site of the first house built by
The Pilgrims