Home Description

This typical Pilgrim dwelling in Plimoth Colony is a modest, single-room structure quite different from the log cabins often imagined in popular culture. The house is built using English timber-frame construction techniques consisting of heavy oak posts and beams joined with mortise-and-tenon joints and wooden pegs. Although some other homes in this neighborhood have been upgraded to rough-hewn clapboards, the walls of this charmer are filled with wattle and daub—woven sticks plastered over with a mixture of clay, straw and animal dung . The roof is steeply pitched and thatched with marsh grass reeds–not as big a fire hazard as you might think since it is often damp.

The interior is one main room approximately 15 by 18 feet with a large fireplace at one end that serves for cooking, heating, and light. The hearth will certainly be the center of your domestic life. A loft space above, reached by a ladder, provides additional storage but may be cleared and used as sleeping quarters for visiting relatives. The floors are upgraded to wood from the typical rush-covered packed earth.

Furnishings, although sparse and utilitarian, come with the purchase. This includes the owner’s trestle table, two chairs, stool, a chest brought from England for storing linens and valuables, and simple bedsteads with straw-filled mattresses. The windows are small but covered with sturdy wooden shutters that can withstand the worst of Nor’easters.

The cottage is clustered with its neighbors along the main street in Plimoth and is surrounded by protective fencing. Your lot includes space for a kitchen garden and a small outbuilding for livestock or storage. Live like God intended–humble and focused on survival.