As with much of the Massachusetts coast, the South Shore is blessed with historic sites and natural beauty. Seeing firsthand the challenges faced by the Pilgrims who first settled in Plymouth is a vivid reminder of the value of religious tolerance and stubborn endurance – both at the core of the nation's foundation. Generations later, these values were lived out by founding father John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, who lived in nearby Quincy.
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout South Shore.
Museum
Three miles south of Plymouth center, Plimoth Plantation authentically re-creates the Pilgrims’ settlement in its primary exhibit, entitled 1627 English Village. Everything in the village – costumes, implements, vocabulary, artistry, recipes and crops – has been painstakingly researched and remade. Costumed interpreters, acting in character, explain the details of daily life and answer your questions as you watch them work and play.
Historic Site
The Adams family sights are accessible by guided tours departing from the Adams National Historic Park Visitor Center. Every half-hour (until 3:15pm), trolleys travel to the John Adams and John Quincy Adams Birthplaces, the oldest presidential birthplaces in the USA. The half-hour film Enduring Legacy is also shown at the visitor center. Note that the admission fee is payable by credit card only.
Ship
‘You sank my battleship!’ This cry was ne’er heard aboard the mighty USS Massachusetts, a hulk of a craft that survived 35 battles in WWII, gunning down almost 40 aircraft and never losing a man in combat. Today, this heroic vessel sits in a quiet corner of Mt Hope Bay. This beaut – longer than two football fields and taller than a nine-story building – is one of eight historic ships that visitors can explore at Battleship Cove.
Ship
If Plymouth Rock tells us little about the Pilgrims, Mayflower II speaks volumes. Climb aboard this replica of the small ship in which the Pilgrims made the fateful voyage, where 102 people lived together for 66 days as the ship passed through stormy North Atlantic waters. Actors in period costume are on board, recounting harrowing tales from the journey.
Museum
Claiming to be the oldest continually operating public museum in the country, Pilgrim Hall Museum was founded in 1824. Its exhibits are not reproductions but real objects that the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag neighbors used in their daily lives – from Governor Bradford's chair to Constance Hopkins' beaver hat.
Museum
The centerpiece of New Bedford, this excellent, hands-on museum remembers the town's heyday as a whaling port. The museum occupies seven buildings situated between William and Union Sts. A 66ft skeleton of a blue whale and a smaller skeleton of a sperm whale welcome you at the entrance. To learn what whaling was all about, you need only tramp the decks of the Lagoda, a fully rigged, half-size replica of an actual whaling bark.
Church
John and Abigail Adams and John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams are all interred in the basement of the handsome granite United First Parish Church, in the center of Quincy. The crypt is open by guided tour.
Museum
In 1636, local leaders constructed a gristmill on Town Brook so that the growing community could grind corn and produce cornmeal. Today, the replica mill is on the site of the original, still grinding corn the old-fashioned way. Take home a bag of freshly ground cornmeal as a souvenir.
Church
Across from the Whaling Museum, this small chapel was a refuge from the rigors and stresses of maritime life. Melville immortalized it in Moby-Dick, where he wrote: ‘In this same New Bedford there stands a Whaleman’s Chapel, and few are the moody fishermen…who fail to make a Sunday visit to the spot.’