Plymouth Rock to be hidden during rehab

PLYMOUTH, Mass., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Plymouth Rock, legendary landing site for the first English settlement in Massachusetts, is to be encased in a plywood box for two months next spring.

The portico over the rock, finished in 1921, is scheduled for a major overhaul, The Boston Globe reported. Officials said they decided to do the work between March and May because few tourists visit at that time of year.

The plywood will protect the rock during construction work.

About 1 million people come to the rock every year, mostly in the summer and at Thanksgiving.

The veneration of Plymouth Rock began in the 18th century when an elderly local resident said his father had told him that passengers on the Mayflower used it for landing. The rock broke in half when it was moved inland in 1774, broke again during a 19th-century move and has cracked and lost chips to souvenir hunters over the decades.

In 1880, the surviving pieces of the rock that had been moved were moved back to the beach, rejoining what was still there.