Longfellow's Wayside Inn

The historic 1716 inn that invites travelers to find food and lodging for "man, woman, and beast" is hidden behind the trees off Route 20 in Sudbury.

A horse-and-buggy's driver awaits a wedding party outside the Longfellow's Wayside Inn.

Travel west down Route 20 for about 10 miles, away from the office buildings lining I-95 and past the antique shops and shopping plazas, and you'll soon hit a patch of Old New England. The Wayside Inn Road, which extends into the trees to your right, brings you to the Wayside Inn, an inn almost 300 years old that was the inspiration behind Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Tales of a Wayside Inn." Henry Ford bought the property in the 1920s and shaped the lands around it, turning the scene into one that looks as if it has been plucked from a New England postcard. He added a one-room schoolhouse nearby, a white chapel, a grist mill, and an old country store that still sells Hummels, Boston baked beans, braided rugs, and other Americana.

The Wayside Inn, which Longfellow described in 1862, was first owned by David Howe and was originally known as Howe's Tavern. Its name was changed to Longfellow's Wayside Inn after the poet visited the inn and wrote about a fictional gathering of local characters, including the inn's landlord, who described a midnight ride by Paul Revere in now-famous prose. Henry Ford bought the historic property in 1923, added to the grounds, and eventually turned it into the nonprofit entity that it is today.

The inn these days is still open for lodging, dining, and special events such as weddings. It's not uncommon during summer months to see a bride and groom being driven down the country road in a horse-drawn carriage to the Martha-Mary Chapel, an elegant, non-denominational chapel that is perched atop a small green hill near the inn.

In the shadow of the chapel, the one-room schoolhouse now functions as a museum. It was used for educating young students up until 1951, but its main attraction is its association with the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Ford used the Redstone School in Sterling, Mass., to create the current structure. The Redstone School was once thought to be the setting of the rhyme because a schoolteacher remembered a similar incident with a lamb and a man writing a poem about it. The author of the children's rhyme, however, denied that the story was based upon any real event.

Follow the Wayside Inn Road a little further and you'll soon see to your left the Wayside Inn Grist Mills - also built by Ford and now a museum with signs for self-guided tours. The grounds around the mill are a beautiful and peaceful place to picnic on a nice day.

If you head back to Route 20 (Wayside Inn Road loops back to the main road) and continue a short distance over the Marlborough line, you'll see the Wayside Country Store - a white-painted wood structure with two old-fashioned benches in the front labeled "Democrats" and "Republicans." Inside, the store loses none of its charm, with wooden floorboards and a stove in the center of the room for chillier days. In the shop you can buy just about anything you need for a New England kitchen, including linen wall calendars, chocolates shaped as five-cent pieces, witch hazel, and chocolate-covered cranberries. A second room is filled with collectibles - Christmas carolers, Lenox fairy tale pieces, Christmas ornaments or other holiday decorations in season, and more.

Web Links

Longfellow's Wayside Inn
Wayside Country Store

More Photos

Wayside Inn Sign
Wayside Inn
Martha-Mary Chapel
Foliage
Wayside Inn Grist Mill
Wayside Inn Grist Mill - II
One-Room Schoolhouse

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Author: C. Danko
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