The Sparrow House is presumed to have been built by Richard Sparrow in 1640. If so, it is the oldest house in Plymouth. Inside it is distinctive of the early 17th century era with its great fireplace and its brick oven. Note: Spring Street has been referred to as Spring Lane and Baptist Hill, the latter designation derived from the fact that a Baptist chapel occupied a lot for many years on the west side a few steps from Summer Street. This house is now used as craftsman’s shop by the Plymouth Potters, and is open to visitors. Plymouth Pottery is unique in that it is made up of local red-firing clay by former pupils of a State Vocational Project—now organized into a co-operative guild. Many pieces have an early American flavor and the hand-ground glazes give interesting and unusual effects. Many persons have called these pieces “heirlooms of the future.” Summer Street follows the brook along which were many manufacturing concerns a short generation ago. It leads to the wooded area of the town past Oak Grove and Pine Hills Cemeteries to Morton Park, a woodland sanctuary of nearly 340 acres situated about a mile from the town’s center. This land was given to the town by a group of Plymouth citizens in 1889, headed by Mr. Nathaniel Morton, who was himself a generous contributor. The Park includes two lakes of sparkling fresh water, Little Pond which covers approximately 40 acres and where accommodations are provided for picnics and bathing, and Billington Sea, covering an area of over three hundred acres. [Illustration: THE HOWLAND HOUSE—Built in 1666—Restored 1941 The only house in Plymouth where Pilgrims once lived] THE TRAINING GREEN Lying just below Watson’s Hill between Pleasant Street on the west and Sandwich Street on the east, is an open square known as Training Green, from the fact that in the earlier days companies of militia were trained there in the manual of arms. In the center stands the Soldiers’ Monument, erected in 1869 to the memory of Plymouth men who served in the army and navy and who gave their lives during the Civil War. This tract of land was used before the arrival of the Pilgrims by the Indians for growing corn. It has contributed its share of arrow heads and other Indian relics, as have the other hills and fields in the immediate neighborhood. SANDWICH STREET, OLD HOUSES Sandwich Street runs southeasterly from the foot of Market Street, formerly Spring Hill. Near this point on the west side of Sandwich Street, near the head of Water Street, is the Howland House, built in 1666. It was the home of Jabez Howland, son of John Howland of the Mayflower, who died in 1672. This house is now owned by the Society of Howland Descendants which holds annual reunions for the purpose of keeping alive the family intercourse and the traditions of the early colonial days. THE HARLOW HOUSE