Plymouth Rock, other landmarks vandalized
Crews spent Monday cleaning up Plymouth Rock and other monuments that were vandalized with graffiti over the weekend in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Photos on social media showed red spray paint covering the rock, which marks the area where William Bradford and the pilgrims of the Mayflower disembarked before establishing Plymouth Colony in 1620.
The letters “MOF” and the numbers 508 covered the rock and its inscription. Vandals defaced the Pilgrim Maiden statue and the National Monument to the Forefathers, as well as a bench that honors the daughters of the colonists who arrived in Plymouth on the ship Anne in 1623 and four colorful artworks in the shape of scallop shells, said
Melissa G. Arrighi, the Plymouth town manager.
The floor of the Half Shell Band Stand was also damaged. The Plymouth Police Department is investigating the vandalism.
Arrighi said she felt a mix of emotions after learning of the graffiti, which was discovered early Monday morning.
“Outrage. It was disappointment. It was disgust,” she said in an interview on
Tuesday. “The level of disrespect and not caring about public property and the historic community, it’s shocking.”
Lea Filson, executive director of the tourism group See Plymouth, said she was “heartsick.” She said she is a descendant of the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower.
“This is the first place families arrived in the New World to begin a colony,” she said. “This is the only example of Native peoples and English colonists to agree to a peace alliance and keep it for over half a century.”
Arrighi said crews from the town and the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation and a volunteer, Jake Mowles of East Coast Power Washing, helped remove the graffiti. She posted photos of the restored landmarks on social media.