Wayside Inn Historic District

For other uses, see Wayside Inn (disambiguation).

Wayside Inn Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
The Wayside Inn in 2025
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Location	Sudbury, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°21′28″N71°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 [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

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. ^[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.^{[ citation needed ]}

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

• 
  Sign with initials of previous owners of the inn
• 
  A marker announcing George Washington's passing through in 1775
• 
  The Wayside Inn, c. 1935
• 
  Martha Mary Chapel
• 
  Redstone School, with the chapel behind
• 
  The inn's grist mill

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. "Community Building Project: The Wayside Inn (Massachusetts)". www.tfguild.org. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
3. Historic Homes and Genealogical memoirs of Early New England pg 281-283 publ 1909 by Ellery Bicknell Crane
4. "Martha-Mary Chapel Sudbury, Mass built by Henry Ford in memory of his + Mrs. Ford's mother-". www.digitalcommonwealth.org. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
5. Bryan, Ford R. (2002). Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford. Wayne State University Press. p. 381.
6. 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.
7. "33 Wayside Inn Railroad Waiting Room". Sudbury Historical Society. October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2024.
8. 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

• Official website
• At archive.org, the listing for the so-called "Front door diaries"