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:
This tablet is erected by the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts to mark
the site of the first house built by
The Pilgrims
In that house on the 21st of February 1621 (New Style) the right of popular suffrage was exercised and Myles Standish was chosen Captain by a majority vote. On or near this spot, April 1, 1621, the memorable treaty with Massasoit was made.
Next to the Common House came that of Peter Brown, and third, that of John Goodman. Farther up the street, at its intersection by the path to the Indian ford over the brook, was the house and land of William Brewster, Elder and spiritual leader of the Colony.
Across the path, continuing up the hill, were the houses of John Billington, Francis Cooke, and Edward Winslow. On the opposite side, conveniently near his duties at the fort, was the house of Captain Myles Standish. Next to that, descending the hill again towards the shore, was the large lot and house of the Governor, William Bradford. Part of his garden was used in 1637 for the site of the first Meeting House. Next to Bradford’s house came those of Stephen Hopkins, and of the faithful physician, Dr. Samuel Fuller. On most of these lots, descriptive tablets have been placed by the Town of Plymouth.
Six years after the first labor of building the settlement had been accomplished, the Colony received a visitor from the Dutch trading post at Manhattan, which sent its Secretary, Isaac De Rasiere, to confer with them about their respective trading transactions.
In a letter to Holland after his return from Plymouth, he describes vividly and minutely the town as he saw it in October 1627.
“New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill, stretching east toward the seacoast, with a broad street about a cannon shot of about eight hundred feet long leading down the hill.... The houses are constructed of hewn plank, with gardens also enclosed behind and at the sides with hewn planks, so that their houses and court yards are arranged in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden attack; and at the ends of the street are three wooden gates.
In the center at the cross street stands the Governor’s house, before which is a square enclosure upon which four patteros are mounted so as to flank along the streets.”
The old street, following unchanged its original direction, has been in constant use for more than three hundred years, and its present inhabitants number several descendants of the first dwellers.