Guide to Historic Plymouth: Localities and Objects of InterestBurbank, A. S. (Alfred Stevens)
History
Guide to Historic Plymouth: Localities and Objects of Interest
Burbank, A. S. (Alfred Stevens)
Plymouth (Mass.) -- Guidebooks
Descending the hill to the harbor front at our right a short distance we
see a beautiful and artistic structure of granite in the shape of a
canopy, supported on four columns, and under this is the Rock, now
world-famous. (At this writing in 1919, the comprehensive plans of the
Tercentenary Commission contemplate displacing commercial structures and
improving the harbor front in the vicinage of the Rock.) The upper
portion of the renowned boulder, nearly all of that which is now in
sight, was for one hundred and six years separated from the original
Rock, and during this long period occupied localities remote from the
Landing-place. In 1774, during the series of events leading to the
Revolution, an attempt to raise the Rock for transportation to Town
Square disclosed the fact that the upper portion had become separated
from the lower, probably through action of frost. It was taken to the
Square where it was deposited at the foot of a liberty pole from which
waved a flag bearing the motto, “Liberty or death.”
[Illustration: NORTH STREET.]
[Illustration: CANOPY OVER PLYMOUTH ROCK—COLE’S HILL.]
It remained there until 1834, when at a celebration of the Fourth of
July it was carried in procession to Pilgrim Hall, deposited in the
front area, and inclosed by an iron fence. Here the separated part of
the Rock remained forty-six years, its incongruous position away from
the water not being understood by visitors without lengthy explanation.
Mr. Stickney, the gentleman by whose liberality the alterations in
Pilgrim Hall were being made in the summer of 1880, recognized the
impropriety of this condition, and proposed reuniting the parts at the
original Landing-place. The Pilgrim Society readily acceded to this
proposition, and accordingly on Monday, Sept. 27, 1880, without
ceremony, this part of the Rock was placed beneath the Monumental Canopy
at the waterside, the reunited pieces, after a separation of one hundred
and six years, probably now presenting much the same appearance as when
the Pilgrim shallop grazed its side. As to the identity of this Rock,
and the certainty of its being the very one consecrated by the first
touch of Pilgrim feet on this shore, there is not the slightest loophole
for a doubt. Ancient records, now accessible, refer to it as an object
of prominence on the shore, before the building of the wharf about it in
the year 1741. Thomas Faunce, the elder of the church, who was born in
1647 and died in 1746, at the age of 99, was the son of John Faunce, who
came over in the “Ann” in 1623. At the age of ninety-five years hearing
that the Rock, which from youth he had venerated was to be disturbed, he
visited the locality, related the history of the Rock as told him by his
father and contemporary Pilgrims, and in the presence of many witnesses
declared it to be that upon which the Forefathers landed in 1620. Thus
it has been pointed out and identified from one generation to another,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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