Pilgrim Monument

Provincetown, Massachusetts, United States

Landmarks and monuments

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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The Pilgrim Monument is a granite tower on High Pole Hill, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 252 feet 7.5 inches tall. It commemorates the Mayflower's 1620 landing, was dedicated in 1910, and is climbed by 116 steps and 60 ramps.

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Pilgrim Monument

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42.05222° N, 70.18864° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

The Pilgrim Monument is a granite tower built to commemorate the Mayflower’s first landing in 1620, and its operator says it is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. The operator gives its height as 252 feet 7.5 inches and its summit as 350 feet above sea level; the Boston Globe, in a 2024 travel piece, gave 252 feet.

The Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association formed in 1892 to raise “some suitable structure” on Provincetown’s Town Hill, and in 1902 the town deeded High Pole Hill to it. In 1907 it chose to pattern a bell tower on the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy, and commissioned the Boston architect Willard T. Sears. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone on 20 August 1907, and President William H. Taft dedicated the finished tower on 5 August 1910. The granite came from Stonington, Maine, the first block weighing 4,000 pounds. A building to house a museum was added the same year.

According to the operator, the government kept the right to use the tower in wartime until 1959. It served as a lookout in the First World War, and some believe it was the site of secret communications experiments in the Second.

Visitors climb 116 steps and 60 ramps, which the operator puts at about ten minutes at a leisurely pace, passing interior stones donated by cities, towns and organisations across the country. Since 2022 an ADA-compliant inclined elevator has linked Bradford Street to the hilltop, though the operator has posted notices when it is out of service. The museum, grounds and elevator share the same admission as the climb.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Climb the tower by 116 steps and 60 ramps (about ten minutes, per the operator) for views of Provincetown and its harbour. The Provincetown Museum and an inclined elevator from Bradford Street are on the same campus. Opening days vary by season.

ACCESS

High Pole Hill Road, Provincetown. Reach it by car to the on-site parking lot, or on foot from Bradford Street using the inclined elevator. Tickets are sold on site in open hours; the tower is climbed by stairs and ramps. The elevator is sometimes out of service, so check with the operator before relying on it.

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