[Illustration: {Illustrated capital}]
The magnificent peristyle shown here was designed by the architects
McKim, Mead & White and was a gift of the National Society of the
Colonial Dames of America on the 300th anniversary of the Landing of the
Pilgrims.
It encloses the historic “Rock” on which the Pilgrims first set foot.
The foundation wall is open on the water side allowing the free wash of
the flood tides around the rock as it lies in its original bed.
[Illustration: PLYMOUTH ROCK—A NATIONAL SHRINE]
Plymouth Rock, emblematic and suggestive of the Pilgrim associations has
been viewed by countless thousands of people, not only from our own
states, but the world over. It has been photographed, painted, and
reproduced in bronze. On this rock the Pilgrims first stepped foot,
December 21st, 1620. To those who may be prone to scepticism it can be
stated that its interesting history has been handed down from generation
to generation from Elder Thomas Faunce, who was born in Plymouth in
1647, and who died in 1746, aged 99 years. A few years before his death,
at a time when removal or covering up of the rock was under
contemplation, he made vigorous protest at what he termed the
desecration of an object of deep veneration, stating that his father,
John Faunce, who came over in the Ann in 1623, had told him that it was
on that rock that the forefathers landed, as stated by them to him.
It is further possible that an early age some of the eldest of the
Mayflower passengers may have imparted this information to Elder Faunce
directly. During the war of the Revolution, an attempt was made to
remove the rock to Town Square, there to be viewed as an emblem of
liberty, civic and religious. In the operation of lifting, the upper
portion split away, leaving the base in its original bed. This top
portion was, however, transferred to the square, where it remained until
1834, when it was taken to Pilgrim Hall and placed within an iron fence
at the left of the entrance. In 1880 it was moved back and cemented to
its original base.
In the vicinity where the Rock now rests there were once many wharves
and industrial enterprises. Plymouth was then an active and busy seaport
but all this was changed when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts bought
this land in 1920 and made it into a reservation.
The memorial pictured below, standing close to the Rock and Peristyle,
is symbolic of the part played by the women of the Plymouth Colony in
shaping the destinies of this, the first permanent settlement. Their
courage and fortitude fill a glorious page in the annals of American
colonization.
[Illustration: MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN
By C. T. Jennewein
“Erected by the National Society Daughters of the American
Revolution in Memory of the Heroic Women of the Mayflower
1620-1920.”]