Plimoth Patuxet Museums, Part 1

For my birthday in October, I visited Plymouth, MA, stopping at Plimoth Patuxet Museums before exploring some of the town. In this post, I will discuss the Visitor Center, Craft Center, Historic Patuxet Homesite, and the Fort. In the next post, I will discuss the 17th-Century English Village. In the final post, I will describe Mayflower II, Plymouth Rock, and the Plymouth Harbor Seals public art display.

A round, dome-like house made of bendy wooden poles and bark. A building with neutral colors and a pair of entrances. Mural of Native American woman working in the garden.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums was founded as Plimoth Plantation by wealthy Bostonian Harry Hornblower in 1947. It was known by that name until 2020. Pilgrims did call their settlement a plantation, which in the 17th century meant a colonial settlement. However, by the early 21st century, the name was recognized to have two problems. First, people who live today tend to think of plantations by their modern definition, a place where tobacco and cotton was grown, especially by enslaved laborers. Second, the name did not reflect the multicultural history of the area. The new name brought with it updated interpretation for the museums in line with current scholarly research. The museum is continuing to expand with the reproduction 1670 Warren House expected to be constructed at the site within the next few years.

Sculpture of a cow whose body is the Mayflower II boat. A black dress and matching bonnet from the mid-19th century A reproduction dress of an English woman and the deerskin outfit of a Pokanoket man. In between is an infographic poster of the demographics of the first thanksgiving.

The updates were immediately evident in the Visitor Center where an exhibit discussed the history of the Thanksgiving holiday. Cases included reproduction costumes of noteworthy people, including the dress of an English woman and the deerskin outfit of a Pokanoket man from the first Thanksgiving, and the 19th century clothing of Sarah Josepha Hale who lobbied Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Also in the Visitor Center was a new orientation video, which bore a design similarity to a slide presentation. My favorite surprise was Mooflower, a statue originally created by local artist Joseph Keen for the CowParade of Boston in 2006, which raised money for the Jimmy Fund, Dana Farber Caner Institute. (This is the same organization that created CowParade of Old Sturbridge Village in 2025.)

An informational sign describing the upcoming reproduction of a 1670s building A plainclothes interpreter burns a small file on a log to make a dugout canoe A fifteen-foot-long dugout canoe or mishoon

The next stop was the Craft Center where plainclothes interpreters created clay pots and wove on looms. This building also had a cafe and an excellent gift shop featuring handmade crafts, books, postcards, t-shirts, and other thematic gifts. I bought a Mini Block set of a cute Pilgrim couple to add to my collection. Near the Craft Center was a tiny garden growing plants that represented the four humors of post-medieval medicine. Mid-fall was a bit late for the gardens, but I imagine they are lush and green in summer.

An arch with murals depicting English people and Native peoples who lived at the site A grey sign with green text reading Historic Plimoth Patuxet Homesite Behind a palisade fence and across a field is a large modern building.

Down the hill was Historic Patuxet Homesite, which featured cooking succotash, burning a mishoon or dug-out canoe, a wetu or house, and interactive games. I had seen many mishoon during my trips around New England (including Heritage Museum & Gardens in  Robbins Museum of Archaeology in Middleboro, MA; Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT; and Windsor Historical Society in Windsor, CT), but this was the only site to have a demonstration. The plainclothes guide did a great job explaining how water and shells were used to control the fire. He also noted that the work is not demanding, allowing children and older adults to have a job that did not take too much energy. Children would create little mishoon, the right size for dolls, as part of their education. As for the wetu, even though it was the largest building of its kind that I had seen (larger than those at Heritage Museum; Mystic Seaport; Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH; Old Yarmouth Historical Society in Yarmouth, MA; and Blue Hills Reservation in Milton, MA), it was actually much smaller than the original winter time wetu and was so well-insulated that it could reach 80 degrees in the winter.

A two-story wooden fort with an entrance at the bottom and space for looking out at the top. A half-dozen 17th century cannons pointed out the windows of a wooden fort. A row of primitive 17th-century houses across a field of thick grass

My final stop for this section is the fort at the entrance to the 17th-century English Village. A plainclothes guide described the construction methods used to build the fort, while a costumed interpreter described the complex relationship between Native peoples and the new colonists. On the second story of the fort, replicas of period cannons stood ready to fire. This was a great spot to take overhead pictures of the Village, Craft Center, and neighboring fields.

Location: 137 Warren Ave, Plymouth, MA 02360, USA