Summer street leads westerly from Market Street, being one of the first
streets laid out. Here may be seen two of the oldest houses in Plymouth,
viz.: the Richard Sparrow House on the left of the street and a short
distance from Market Street and the Leach House a few steps beyond at
the Corner of Spring Street, once known as Spring Lane. This house was
built by George Bonum in 1679.
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]