[Illustration: {Illustrated capital}]
On a 100-acre tract, formerly part of the beautiful Hornblower estate, a
replica of the Pilgrim First Street (now Leyden Street) with its
original nineteen thatched dwellings is being erected under the auspices
of Plimoth Plantation, Inc. When complete the project will have cost an
estimated million dollars.
Nearby, in a bend in the Eel River, is the permanent anchorage of the
Mayflower II, an exact reproduction of the original Pilgrim ship, built
and financed by popular subscription in England.
The idea of reproducing a full-size, 92-foot 180-ton Mayflower replica
was conceived during the North African fighting in World War II by a
Londoner, Warwick Charlton. His dream was to memorialize the common
heritage of English-speaking peoples, and to express his country’s
gratitude for American aid in times of great stress.
Mayflower II was constructed of English oak and Oregon pine at an
ancient shipyard in Brixham, Devon, using plans drawn up, after five
years of research, by William A. Baker, shipyard executive with
Bethlehem Steel. More than a quarter million English people contributed
shillings and pence to the Project Mayflower fund.
[Illustration: PLIMOTH PLANTATION IN SOUTH PLYMOUTH
This is how the replica of the original Pilgrim settlement will look
when finished.
Mayflower II is shown at its permanent anchorage in lower left
center.]
Museum
Parking
Fort
Gardens
Trading Post
Indian Village
Mayflower
Grist Mill-Jenney
Eel River Pond
To the Ocean
The Pilgrim village is located on a park-like site sloping up from Eel
River. When complete it will include a trading post, grist mill, Indian
village, and a fort meeting house, as well as dwellings identical with
those occupied by Governor Bradford, Elder Brewster, Myles Standish,
John Alden, and the rest. The work is being supervised by Charles R.
Strickland, Plimoth Plantation architect.
The Plantation homes are designed to have the vertical planked siding,
thatched roofs, and sheepskin parchment windows of Tudor times. They are
being furnished with trestle tables, benches, trundle beds, sea chests,
and the like. Women in costume working at old looms will weave
linsey-woolsey, and dye it with butternut hull and hemlock bark
decoctions.
Mayflower II comes to its permanent berth in the Eel River after an
Atlantic crossing, and exhibitions at New York and elsewhere, under the
command of Alan Villiers, of grain-ship fame. The ship will symbolize
the wellsprings of American democracy. It will vividly recall the ideas
forever shrined in the Compact, whereby the little company of dissenters
bound themselves to live together by the law and under God.
All America will want to see how their nation was cradled, and so more
keenly appreciate the noble tradition to which they are heir.