Look for the sloping road framed by wooden clapboard houses and a low stone retaining wall. Welcome to Leyden Street. Before Christmas in sixteen twenty, the Pilgrims disembarked the Mayflower and began laying out this exact path. They built their modest houses from the shore up to the base of Burial Hill, which you can see illustrated on your screen.
This was a practical choice, as the adjacent Town Brook provided fresh drinking water. Governor William Bradford and Doctor Samuel Fuller owned lots right along this road, and the famed First Thanksgiving was likely held nearby in sixteen twenty-one. You can check your app for a glimpse of how the rough-hewn street appeared by sixteen twenty-seven. Originally called First Street, it was renamed in eighteen twenty-three to honor the city in Holland that offered the Pilgrims refuge. Because people have lived here uninterrupted since those first arrivals, this is the oldest continuously inhabited street in the thirteen colonies.
It is humbling to stand where history took such monumental steps. Whenever you are ready, we can make our way to the next stop.
