Pilgrim Monument Review

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Pilgrim Monument

Fodor's Review:

The first thing you'll see in Provincetown is the Pilgrim Monument. This grandiose edifice, which seems somewhat out of proportion to the rest of the low-rise town, commemorates the Pilgrims' first landing in the New World and their signing of the Mayflower Compact (the first colonial-American rules of self-governance) before they set off from Provincetown Harbor to explore the mainland. Climb the 116 steps and 60 short ramps of the 252-foot-high tower for a panoramic view—dunes on one side, harbor on the other, and the entire bay side of Cape Cod beyond. On an exceptionally clear day you can see the Boston skyline. At the tower's base is a museum of Lower Cape and Provincetown history, with exhibits on whaling, shipwrecks, and scrimshaw; a diorama of the Mayflower; and another of a glass factory.

The tower was erected of granite shipped from Maine, according to a design modeled on a tower in Siena, Italy. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1907, and President Howard Taft attended the 1910 dedication. On Thanksgiving Eve, in a ceremony that includes a museum tour and open house, 5,000 white and gold lights that drape the tower are illuminated—a display that can be seen from as far away as the Cape Cod Canal. They are lighted nightly into the New Year.

  • Cost: $7
  • Open: Early Apr.-June and Sept. and Oct., daily 9-4:15; July and Aug., daily 9-6:15; Nov., weekends 9-4:15
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