{"id":243,"date":"2009-01-08T21:42:13","date_gmt":"2009-01-08T21:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/piqueoftheweek.wordpress.com\/?p=243"},"modified":"2009-01-08T21:42:13","modified_gmt":"2009-01-08T21:42:13","slug":"the-old-bay-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/2009\/01\/08\/the-old-bay-path\/","title":{"rendered":"The Old Bay Path"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Old Bay Path<\/strong>
\nWell before the Pilgrims landed, the Native Americans of southeastern Massachusetts had an extensive network of\u00a0 well-worn trails, among them the Old Bay Path shown in these two lantern slides.\u00a0 By 1637, the colonists had adopted the Bay Path as the main highway through Kingston. Eventually the route became a\u00a0 private road for the Bradfords, then\u00a0 reverted back to a foot path between Stony Brook village (today\u2019s Summer Street neighborhood) and the settlement at Island Creek once the Boston Road (now\u00a0 Summer Street, or Route 3A) was laid out in 1708.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Old Bay Path, ca. 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around 1900, the fields through which the path ran were purchased by private interests, the trees and bushes\u00a0 cut down,\u00a0 and a sand pit opened nearby;\u00a0 soon just a vestige of the old path remained.\u00a0 The lantern slide below shows the handsome Old Shiloh on the path.\u00a0 Old Shiloh lived with his mistress Miss Charlotte Cutts on Brewster Road; the path ran close to their home, from the Stony Brook schoolhouse to Miramar.<\/p>\n

\"Old
Old Shiloh on the Old Bay Path, ca. 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the Bay Path connected first the numerous Native American villages, then many of today\u2019s South Shore towns, it began in our town, specifically in what was once the village of the Patuxet, near the present Kingston\/Plymouth line. From that point, the path divided, with\u00a0 one branch following today\u2019s Main and Crescent Streets\u00a0 and another going along the shore of Rocky Nook via the present Howland\u2019s Lane\u00a0 to the Jones River.\u00a0 Here the water level determined the method of crossing:\u00a0 stepping stones at low tide or skin boat at high tide.\u00a0 As late as 1900, evidence of this branch of the trail was still visible, crossing the Jones River between the Poorhouse and the boat houses on Landing Road , continuing past the Bailey Playground tennis courts\u00a0 and across the ballfields —\u00a0 once a low, wet area now filled in — up the hill to Summer Street , then over to Maple Street, left\u00a0 at Bradford Road, onto Foster\u2019s Lane\u00a0 and finally along\u00a0 Brewster Road.\u00a0 Other paths intersected the Bay Path here, continuing on to Island Creek and other communities.\u00a0 The Bay Path itself continued\u00a0 along Tarkiln Road into Duxbury near the Tree of Knowledge , running past the Twin Schoolhouse and\u00a0 north to other\u00a0 villages.<\/p>\n

Little did those Patuxet realize that many years later we would still be using parts of their well worn trail, and even less, perhaps, do today\u2019s travellers realize just how old the roads they follow actually are.<\/p>\n

Source: Emily Fuller Drew Manuscript Collection\u00a0 MC- 16 2.1\u00a0 Early Roads and Trails.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Old Bay Path Well before the Pilgrims landed, the Native Americans of southeastern Massachusetts had an extensive network of\u00a0 well-worn trails, among them the Old Bay Path shown in these two lantern slides.\u00a0 By 1637, the colonists had adopted the Bay Path as the main highway through Kingston. Eventually the route became a\u00a0 private … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Old Bay Path”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[33,52,83],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landscapes","category-town-of-kingston","tag-bay-path","tag-card-file","tag-dogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kplma.org\/pique\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}