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Historic Houses
 The
houses first constructed by the Pilgrims have long-since been torn down
and replaced. However, there are a few houses still in Plymouth
and vicinity which date to the 17th century. The oldest surviving
house in Plymouth is the Richard Sparrow house (picture at left),
originally built sometime between 1636 and 1640. The original
two-story, two-room house was built just off the bank of Town Brook,
well upstream from the original Pilgrim houses on Leyden Street.
Richard Sparrow arrived in Plymouth about 1632 with wife Pandora, and
son Jonathan who would have been about four years old at the time.
Richard Sparrow was constable of Plymouth for a short time, and also
performed public service in Plymouth as a juror, surveyor, and tax
collector, before moving to Eastham in the 1650s, and sold his Plymouth
house to George Bonum in 1653. Today, the house is owned by the
Richard Sparrow House, a non-profit organization,
http://www.sparrowhouse.com,
and runs a gift-shop and museum.
The John Alden House (picture at left) is thought to have been constructed about 1653 by Mayflower passenger John Alden, in Duxbury, the town just to the north of Plymouth. Though the house has undergone extensive remodeling since the 17th century, portions of it appear to have been constructed with wood from John Alden's original home on this site, which he built about 1629. The Alden House was purchased by the Alden Kindred of America, Inc., http://www.alden.org, in 1907, and can be toured at certain times of the year.
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The
Jabez Howland House (picture at right) was built in 1666 by Jacob
Mitchell, and sold to Jabez Howland shortly thereafter. Jabez
Howland was the son of Mayflower passenger's John and Elizabeth
(Tilley) Howland, and it is believed his parents lived with him in the
house for part of the year during the winters (his father John Howland
died in 1673, and his mother Elizabeth died in 1686.) Jabez sold
the house in 1680. The house is currently owned by the Pilgrim
John Howland Society, 