home image
Historic Village View Photos

Experience history firsthand! We invite you to step through the Portal of the Past into America’s Hometown Historic Village, expanded for 2011!

Located adjacent to the America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Parade route, within the historic and scenic Brewster Gardens, come visit a unique, open-air, Living History Museum spanning four centuries of American history. Best of all, it is entirely free of charge!

Wind your way back in time past WWII troops, WWI “Doughboys,” Civil War artillery, Colonial militia, Royal Navy seamen, and His Majesty’s Regulars, to the earliest Massachusetts regiment of Pikemen at Plymouth’s own Seventeenth Century Jenney Grist Mill.

Learn about American military history from the very soldiers who fought, as well as the concerns of those left behind. Observe or participate in the military, civilian, and children’s activities scheduled throughout both days. Meet real historical figures, form up and drill, step into a dance, or join in a game. On Saturday, November 19, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm, complete our historical scavenger hunt for ages 6 – 17 for a special prize!

Jenney Grist Miller & Wife
The Jenney Mill, America’s first utility, launched the beginning of industry and free trade in our country

Salem Trayned Band
Drawing on substantial seventeenth–century source material, the Salem Trayned Band recreates the Salem militia company, organized in 1628/29, and one of the first organized militia groups in North America. The Army National Guard considers its birthday to the date of the first regimental-sized muster on Salem Common in the spring of 1637. The Salem Trayned Band has been drilling with half pikes since 2005

HMS Somerset
The Crew of His Majesty’s Ship SOMERSET portrays Officers, Sailors and Marines of a landing party that would have come ashore during the Revolutionary War period. SOMERSET, a 64- gun 3rd Rated Ship-of-the Line originally served her in North America at the outbreak of hostilities and was responsible for single-handedly closing the port of Boston prior to April 19th, 1775. Participating in events on both land and sea, SOMERST continues to represent the Royal Navy that influenced the course of events here in the Colonies as well as maintains her connections to the modern Royal Navy. In all aspects of her impression, each and every member fulfills the ships motto “Faith for Duty” and brings to life the impression of the sailors and marines that impacted the history of these very waters. Though she presently rests below the waves off Cape Cod, her traditions and legacies are maintained and passed on through “His Majesty’s Ship SOMERSET”.

Yarmouth Minutemen
Our group represents the Yarmouth Militia circa 1774. We are Militia that captured the crew of HMS Somerset which ran aground in Wellfleet.

Gardner’s Regiment
The Regiment was re-formed four years ago to represent the original Gardner's Regiment which was present at Lexington and Concord and provided cover for the retreat from the Battle of Bunker`s Hill. Members of the original Gardner`s Regiment came from what is now considered the Metro Boston area. A history of Thomas Gardner and the Regiment are available on our website. As such, it was said that Gardner’s "was the last to leave the hill." From there Gardner's was stationed at Prospect Hill, in Somerville, and became a unit of Washington's army.

Colonial Village Blacksmith
Visit an authentic blacksmith working his trade. Dean Rantz operates, Rock Village Forge in Middleborough, MA, using traditional tools and techniques to create hand forged iron work, specializing in restoration hardware. Blacksmith Rantz is also a member of the Revolutionary War reenactment group Knox's Artillery.

Sons of Columbia - 1812 Navy
Sons of Columbia is a New England-based living history organization devoted to the accurate portrayal of life in Federal-Era America. Today, they represent the crew of a War of 1812 US Navy gunboat, a small vessel used for coastal defense. The motto on their flag is one of the war’s rallying cries- “Free Trade and Sailors Rights!”

New England Brigade
The New England Brigade is an umbrella group consisting of a number of individual units from throughout New England. We strive to maintain an authentic period presentation of the Union army during the Civil War to teach the present and honor the past.

US Sanitary Commission
A civilian organization, t he Unites States Sanitary Commission was sanctioned by President Lincoln to supplement and aid the Union Army in any way possible. Primary functions of the organization, which was completely privately funded and operated from 1861 – 1866 were: Preventative Services and Soldier's Relief, including camp inspections, hospital supplies, clothing, medicines, doctors and nursing staff, distribution of blankets, socks, writing supplies, food, clothing, and amusements. The US Sanitary Commission also assisted with the arrangement of military pensions, discharge papers and tickets home for soldiers released from the hospitals, long term care in Soldiers' Homes and lodging in nearby towns.

General and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant
Sam Grant IS the definitive Ulysses S. Grant. Together with his wife, experience their first-person accounts of the War between the States.

59th CA/MHS The 59th CA/MHS
Portrays a US Army Machine Gun Platoon in the Argonne forest, 1918, including period equipment such as a .30 cal. water-cooled Browning machine gun on tripod with sandbagged emplacement, and forward artillery observation equipment and optics. Observe the realities of life in the trenches during the first mechanized war and the steep learning curve of a citizen army

502nd Pathfinders, 1941
The 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment seeks to honor through accurate portrayal the fighting men of the 101st
Airborne during World War II through our authenticity in uniforms and equipment standards. Each member is
required to maintain the highest personal level of physical fitness in keeping with the spirit of the Airborne.
Formed as a an experimental unit formed to test the doctrine and tactics of parachute assault, the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the famed 101st Airborne Division was one of the most decorated units of D-Day.