Wayside Inn Historic District
About this property
The Wayside Inn Historic District is a historic district on Old Boston Post Road in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The district contains nine heritage buildings, including 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. 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 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" and includes a bronze statue of a lamb driving a Model T. The Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside is a 23-mile (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. National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts At archive.org, the listing for the so-called "Front door diaries"
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Wayside Inn Historic District
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Questions about this property
When was Wayside Inn Historic District listed on the National Register?
Wayside Inn Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 22, 1973.
What type of historic resource is Wayside Inn Historic District?
Wayside Inn Historic District is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Wayside Inn Historic District?
The period of significance for Wayside Inn Historic District is recorded as the listed era.
Can I research the history near Wayside Inn Historic District?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Wayside Inn Historic District will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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