Longfellow's Wayside Inn

  • Also Known As: Wayside Inn Historic District
  • Historical Name: How Tavern

  • Address: Old Boston Post Rd
  • Travel Genus: Eats , Lodging , Sight
  • Lodging category: Casual Lodging
  • Eatery Category: Casual Sit Down Restaurant
  • Sight Category: Historic District


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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1692/02/29 Samuel How Owner Joseph Noyes, Selectmen of Sudbury, writes to the Middlesex County Court that inns should be for the entertainment of travelers, not town drunkards, and he recommends Samuel How as the most suitable person to have a license to entertain travelers.
1702/06/04 Samuel How Owner Samuel How gives his son David, 130 acres of "New Grant Land" in Sudbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay. David How will soon build a residence.
1716/00/00 David How Owner, Home David How establishes a "hous of entertainment" on the Boston Post Road. Known as Howe's Tavern, the Inn is an expansion of Howe's own home. Four generations of Hows (later Howe) will operate the inn.
1720/00/00 Hepzibah Death Howe Home, Work Hepzibah and David Howe make a home and operate an inn.
1720/04/05 Ezekiel Howe Born Hepzibah Death How, wife of David How, gives birth to a son, Ezekiel How (later Howe), in Sudbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay.
1748/00/00 Ezekiel Howe Owner Ezekiel How is listed as the innkeeping license holder. An undated document shows Ezekiel rates: Lodging 4 pence each, A good dinner 20 pence, Common dinner 12 pence, Best Supper and Breakfast 15 pence each
1752/01/10 Bathsheba Howe Loring Born Bathsheba Stone How, wife of Ezekiel How, gives birth to a daughter, Bathsheba Howe, in Sudbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay.
1759/08/03 David How Died David How dies in Sudbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay.
1770/09/20 Bathsheba Howe Loring Bride Bathsheba Howe, daughter of Ezekiel Howe and Bathsheba Stone Howe, marries Daniel Loring. Marriage of Bathsheba Howe and Daniel Loring
1770/09/20 Daniel Loring Groom Bathsheba Howe, daughter of Ezekiel Howe and Bathsheba Stone Howe, marries Daniel Loring. Marriage of Bathsheba Howe and Daniel Loring
1775/06/20 George Washington American Commander in Chief George Washington passes How's Inn on his way to Cambridge to take command of the Patriot Army, June 1775 July.
1784/00/00 Marquis de Lafayette Life On his third visit to America, The Marquis de Lafayette travels the Post Road on his way from Albany to Boston. He passed by the How Tavern but did not go inside.
1796/10/15 Ezekiel Howe Died Ezekiel How dies at age 76, and son Adam takes over as innkeeper. Adam attaches a small barn to the east, converting it to a large kitchen with chambers above (the Old Kitchen and rooms 9 and 10 above today).
1808/00/00 Isaiah Thomas (publisher) Life Isaiah Thomas, publisher of the Massachusetts Spy writes in his journal "Very cold. Very bad traveling. Snow light. Broke the Sleigh a few rods from Howe's at the black horse in Sudbury. Tarried at Howe's from 11 o'clock this forenoon."
1816/00/00 Mary Elizabeth Sawyer Tyler Life Mary adopts a sickly lamb that has been abandoned by its mother. As it grew stronger, the lamb begins to follow her everywhere. At the Redstone School (built 1798, now at Longfellow's Wayside Inn) Mary hid the lamb under her desk.
1828/00/00 Lydia Maria Francis-Child Guest Abolitionist writer Lydia Maria Francis-Child visits How's Tavern, and later recalls "The dinner was plain and old fashioned, like all else around us, but everything was delicious."
1853/06/22 Henry David Thoreau Guest Henry David Thoreau writes in his Journal "Left our horse at How's Tavern. The oldest date on the sign is 'D.H. 1716.'"
1862/10/00 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Visitor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visits the Howe Tavern. Inspired by the Inn's atmosphere and pastoral landscape, he will write a series of poems focused on a group of fictitious characters that regularly gathered at the old Sudbury tavern. Tales of a Wayside Inn (book)
1892/00/00 Edward Rivers Lemon buys the Wayside Inn, renames it "Longfellow's Wayside Inn," and operates it as "a retreat for literary pilgrims."
1897/00/00 Paint and Clay Club, group artists, poets, and writers which included Alfred T Ordway, Abbott Fuller Graves, Edward Filene and Quincy Kilby, meet regularly at the Inn. Lemon displayed an art collection in a gallery he had built (now the Ford Room).
1923/00/00 Henry Ford Owner Ford buys the Inn from Cora Lemon. With the intention of creating a living museum of Americana, he expanded the property to 3,000 acres in the towns of Sudbury and Marlboro.
1924/08/20 Calvin Coolidge Visitor Mrs Coolidge, and the president's father, Col John Coolidge, look on as Calvin Coolidge autographs a 125 year old oak sap bucket presented to Ford to be preserved as a relic at the Wayside Inn.
1924/08/20 Thomas Edison Visitor Industrialist Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Russell Firestone, stand by as President Coolidge signs an old oak sap bucket at the Wayside Inn.
1925/00/00 Henry Ford Owner Ford adds buildings to the Wayside property including the one-room Redstone School (relocated onto the property in 1925) and a fully functioning Grist Mill (built in 1929).
1928/00/00 Henry Ford Benefactor From 1928-1947, Ford operates the Wayside Inn School for Boys, a trade school that prepares indigent boys for potential employment in Ford's factories.
1930/05/06 Henry Ford Advisor John D Rockefeller Jr comes to the Wayside Inn to talk to Henry Ford about historic preservation and the restoration of Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern.
1930/05/06 John D Rockefeller Jr Visitor Henry Ford welcomes John D Rockefeller Jr at the Wayside Inn where there conversation includes managing historic sites.
1940/00/00 Henry Ford Owner The Martha-Mary Chapel is built by Henry Ford at Richmond Hill Plantation from trees felled in the Hurricane of 1938, shipped north and erected by the Wayside Inn. Great New England Hurricane of 1938
1944/00/00 Henry Ford Benefactor Henry and Clara Ford place the central 125-acre parcel of the Wayside Inn into a non-profit trust to preserve the Inn's historic legacy. Henry Ford was the last private owner of the Inn.

Eat and Drink »

Data »

Particulars for Longfellow's Wayside Inn:
Architectural Style American Colonial
Food Attribute American Food
Area of Significance Architecture
Criteria Architecture-Engineering
Architectural Style Greek Revival
Sight Category Historic District
Historic Use Hotel
Building Type Inn
Area of Significance Literature
Historic Use Manufacturing facility
Attribute Moved property
Level of Significance National
Criteria Person
Owner Private
Disposition Reconstructed Property
Historic Use Religious Property
Historic Use Single dwelling



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration:

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name:
Registry Address:
Registry Number: 73000307
Resource Type:
Owner: Private
Architect: Multiple
Architectural Style: Colonial, Greek revival
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: National
Area of Significance: Literature, Architecture
Applicable Criteria: Architecture-Engineering, Person
Criteria Consideration: Moved property, Reconstructed property
Period of Significance: 1700-1749, 1850-1874, 1750-1799, 1825-1849, 1800-1824
Significant Year: c 1700, 1863
Associated People: Longfellow,Henry Wadsworth
Historic Function: Domestic, Religion, Industry, processing, extraction
Historic Sub-Function: Religious structure, Hotel, Single dwelling, Manufacturing facility
Current Function: Recreation and Culture, Domestic
Current Sub-Function: Museum Single dwelling

Creative Works »

WorkTypeAsNotedInCreatorNote
Tales of a Wayside Inn (book) Poems Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Literary setting

Accommodations »


Lodging
Lodging category Casual Lodging

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