Wayside Inn Historic District
Wayside Inn Historic District | |
The Wayside Inn in 2025 | |
| Location | Sudbury, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°21′28″N 71°28′5″W / 42.35778°N 71.46806°W |
| Built | 1686 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Colonial |
| NRHP reference No. | 73000307 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | April 23, 1973 |
The Wayside Inn Historic District is a historic district on Old Boston Post Road in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The district contains nine heritage buildings,[2] including the Wayside Inn, a historic landmark that is one of the oldest inns in the country, operating as Howe's Tavern in 1716.[3] The district features Greek Revival and American colonial architecture. The area was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The Wayside Inn
Other structures
Henry Ford built a replica and fully working grist mill and a white non-denominational chapel, named after his mother, Mary, and mother-in-law, Martha.[4] Less well known is Ford's attempt to create a reservoir for the Wayside Inn. Across US Route 20 and now secluded in a wooded area behind private homes is a 30-foot (9.1 m)-high stone dam. Dubbed by the locals as "Ford's Folly" the structure failed to retain water because the feeding brook provided insufficient volume and the ground was too porous for a pond to fill.
In the grounds of the chapel stands the Redstone School, a one-room schoolhouse which was moved from its original location in Sterling, Massachusetts, by Ford, who believed the building was the actual schoolhouse mentioned in Sarah Josepha Hale's poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb".[5][6]
The Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside is a 23 miles (37 km) Massachusetts state park forming the northeastern border of the district; the "Wayside" name was selected as the Wayside Inn Railroad Waiting Room was a B&M station at the crossing with Dutton Road.[7][8]
Gallery
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Sign with initials of previous owners of the inn
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A marker announcing George Washington's passing through in 1775
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The Wayside Inn, c. 1935
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Martha Mary Chapel
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Redstone School, with the chapel behind
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The inn's grist mill
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ "Community Building Project: The Wayside Inn (Massachusetts)". www.tfguild.org. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
- ^ Historic Homes and Genealogical memoirs of Early New England pg 281-283 publ 1909 by Ellery Bicknell Crane
- ^ "Martha-Mary Chapel Sudbury, Mass built by Henry Ford in memory of his + Mrs. Ford's mother-". www.digitalcommonwealth.org. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
- ^ Bryan, Ford R. (2002). Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford. Wayne State University Press. p. 381.
- ^ Crane, Ellery Bicknell (1907). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 377.
- ^ "33 Wayside Inn Railroad Waiting Room". Sudbury Historical Society. October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
- ^ Fox, Pamela W. (Spring 2018). "Weston Historical Society Bulletin Vol XLIX, No.1: 1997: Weston Derails the Rail Trail" (PDF). Weston Historical Society. Retrieved August 24, 2023.