 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Wayside Inn Historic District" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Wayside Inn Historic District | |
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
| U.S. Historic district | |
 The Wayside Inn in 2007 | |
  Show map of Massachusetts Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Sudbury, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°21′28″N 71°28′5″W / 42.35778°N 71.46806°W / 42.35778; -71.46806 |
| Built | 1686 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Colonial |
| NRHP reference No. | 73000307 |
| 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 the Wayside Inn, a historic landmark that is one of the oldest inns in the country, operating as Howe's Tavern in 1716. 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
Further information: The Wayside Inn (Sudbury)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. Less well known is Ford's attempt to create a reservoir for the Wayside Inn. Across US Rte. 20 and now secluded in a wooded area behind private homes is a 30 ft. 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".
The Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside is a 23 mile 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.
Gallery
-
-
The main entrance of the inn
-
-
A marker announcing George Washington's passing through in 1775
-
The Wayside Inn, c. 1935
-
The inn's grist mill
See also
References
- "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- Historic Homes and Genealogical memoirs of Early New England pg 281-283 publ 1909 by Ellery Bicknell Crane
- 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.
External links
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topics |  | ||||||||||||||||
| Lists by county | |||||||||||||||||
| Lists by city |
| ||||||||||||||||
| Other lists | |||||||||||||||||
- Sudbury, Massachusetts
- Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
- Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
- Tourist attractions in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
- Open-air museums in Massachusetts