First Parish Church of Plymouth - 1897 - Plymouth, Massachusetts - Dated Architectural Structures Multifarious on Waymarking.com

The hillside site at the top of Leyden Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts, has been a place of worship and community meeting since 1620. First Parish Church, its fifth and current building, was completed in 1899. Its historical and architectural significance has been recognized by the United States Department of the Interior and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2014. A cast bronze plaque mounted to the right of the main doorway on the east façade includes the erection date in Roman numerals: A.D. MDCCCXCVII. Translated to Arabic numerals: 1897.

The plaque reads:

THE CHURCH OF SCROOBY LEYDEN AND THE MAYFLOWER
GATHERED ON THIS HILLSIDE IN 1620
HAS EVER SINCE PRESERVED UNBROKEN RECORDS
AND MAINTAINED A CONTINUOUS MINISTRY
ITS FIRST COVENANT BEING STILL THE BASIS OF ITS FELLOWSHIP
IN REVERENT MEMORY OF ITS PILGRIM FOUNDERS
THIS FIFTH MEETING HOUSE WAS ERECTED A D. MDCCCXCVII.

"The fifth Pilgrim Meetinghouse was designed during a period when the Arts & Crafts Movement was flourishing in Boston. Inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, in addition to the 1888 exhibition held in London by the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, a group of Boston architects and craftsmen founded one of America’s earliest societies of Arts & Crafts in June 1897.

Designed in the Romanesque Revival style, the Meetinghouse’s 88’ high Norman-inspired tower and flanking faux buttresses symbolically reflect the type of church the Pilgrims would have been familiar with in England.

In addition to the church’s ten carillon bells, one of which was a gift from the residents of Plymouth, England, the tower also houses the town’s Paul Revere bell, cast in 1801 and recast after being damaged during the 1892 fire that destroyed the fourth Meetinghouse.

The Meetinghouse’s unique stained glass windows celebrate not only the Pilgrim epic, but also Pilgrim values which have become the core values of America.

Many of these unique windows were designed by Edward Peck Sperry of Tiffany Studios and were gifts from Mayflower descendants and societies." (Source: First Parish Plymouth - Unitarian Universalist)

Year built or dedicated as indicated on the structure or plaque: 1897 Full Inscription (unless noted above): Not listed Website (if available): Not listed

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