Quick History Stops: Duxbury, MA
During my trip to Duxbury, where I visited the Alden House National Historic Site, Art Complex Museum, and Myles Standish Burying Ground, I also made several quick history stops around the town. Like in other New England towns, I visited the church, town hall, another cemetery, a monument, and the forest trails. As an added bonus, I learned that the land now holding the public library, schools, and fields once belonged to colonist Philippe de Len(n)oy or Philip Delano, a Huguenot or French Protestant born in Leiden, the Netherlands who moved to British-held Plymouth Colony in 1621 on the “Fortune”, the second ship after the Mayflower. A sign dedicated to Delano was erected by his descendents from Delano Kindred Incorporated.
First Parish, Town Hall, & Town Offices
The Greek Revival building housing First Parish Duxbury Universalist Unitarian Church is the fourth meeting house in the town. Built in 1840, the church stands beside the matching Old Town Hall and Town Offices, which were constructed the same year. The church has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978. In the front of the Old Town Hall was the Duxbury Roll of Honor memorial honoring veterans from several wars.
Mayflower Cemetery and Lapham Woods
With over forty acres of lush grass and towering oak trees, Mayflower Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Duxbury. The cemetery was named after the ship bringing the Pilgrims to Plymouth, although those passengers were interred in Myles Standish Burying Ground. The oldest recorded grave belonged to Stephen Russell, who died in 1787 and has no headstone. The town has been in charge of caring for the cemetery since 1894.
Down the hill is Lapham Woods, part of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association (NSRWA) and also managed by the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society (DRHS). DRHS bought the tracts of land that became the woods in 1931 and 1952, and Lapham was the surname of one of the sellers. NSRWA began in 1970 when local bird lover Jean Foley realized that two of her favorite sparrow species were no longer in the area. Besides preserving the waters and forests of the region, NSRWA takes legal action against businesses causing problems in the environment, including wastewater treatment plants. Additionally, the Duxbury Town Forest, a part of Duxbury Land Trust abutting Lapham Woods, is dedicated to educator and forester Frederick Bradford Knapp who lived from 1857 to 1932. While walking through these woods, I used Green’s Harbor Path, originally spelled “Greene’s Harbor Payth”. English colonist William Green fished from the area, so the roadway was given his name despite it being used by Wampanoag for thousands of years prior. Other locations included David S. Cutler Forest named after a conservationist journalist, and O’Brien Bog, whose name origin was not described.
Duxbury Rural and Historical Society: King Caesar House, Bumpus Park, and Bradford House
DRHS has several other properties in town, all of which claimed on the website to be open for tours that day but were, in fact, not open for tours. I did take a few beautiful pictures of the properties. King Caesar House was a bright yellow 1809 Federal style mansion built for shipbuilder and merchant Ezra Weston II, who took the nickname “King Caesar” for his grip over the industry. Besides his house, his prized possession was the trading ship Hope, constructed in 1841 to become the biggest boat in New England at the time. The house has been owned by DRHS since 1965. More recent research revealed that among the earliest European owners of the land were colonist George Soule and his wife Mary Beckett Soule along with their nine children. George had arrived on the Mayflower, and the couple received the property in 1637. Soule Kindred of America added a plaque in 2017.
Across the street was Bumpus Park, once a wharf for Weston and his ships so he could keep a close eye on them. DHRS has owned this park since 1946 and named it after Dr. Hermon Carey Bumpus, who had previously bought King Caesar House and its property. During his career, Dr. Bumpus was the fifth president of Tufts College, now called Tufts University, where I earned my MA in Museum Education. Other neat accomplishments included directing the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Also owned by DHRS was Bradford House, a somewhat nondescript 19th building that was not open for tours. The house was built in 1808 and named for ship captain Gershom and his wife Sarah Bradford who ran the household since her husband was often away on sea voyages. The house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.
Myles Standish Monument and Homestead Site
Near the end of my trip, I decided to make a pair of stops at sites honoring colonial militant Myles Standish. Myles Standish Monument State Reservation is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The monument is 116 feet tall (35.4 m) and topped with a ridiculous 14-foot statue of Myles Standish. It is supposed to be open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., but the ranger on duty decided she wanted to close early, so I did not get the chance to climb the 125 steps to the viewing platform at the top. At least the parking was free. Not far away was Myles Standish Homestead, a small park in a residential area. A large rock indicated the location of his home, and a smaller rock indicated the spring he used for freshwater, which supposedly dried up after a storm in 1851. The best part about this little park was its view of the harbor.
