Longfellow's Wayside Inn
On the Old Boston Post Road
just off State Route 20, Sudbury, Mass.
508-443-1776 or 800-339-1776
One Autumn night, in Sudbury town,
Across the meadows bare and brown,
The windows of the wayside inn
Gleamed red with fire-light through the leaves ...
So opens Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, a collection of stories in verse first published in 1863. In the Tales, a group of travelers who happen to be staying at the inn one autumn night share stories between themselves and with the landlord.
Back then, the inn was known as the Red Horse Tavern and had already been operating for more than a century. In honor of Longfellow's book, the Sudbury, Mass., inn was renamed the Wayside Inn, and today is called Longfellow's Wayside Inn. It is the oldest continuously operating inn in the United States.
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You too can sit and share tales, and beer, in the Wayside Inn. You can also dine and spend the night.
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The How family bought the property on which the inn sits in the 1670s. In 1702 David How built a two-room homestead at the site. He obtained a tavern license in 1716 and converted the building into an inn, which originally was called How's Tavern.
The inn's location on the Boston Post Road made it a popular stopover point for all manner of travelers. Under Massachusetts Bay Colony laws, an innkeeper had to furnish accommodations for a man's cattle and horses as well as the man himself; thus, the sign out front reads, "Food, Drink and Lodging for Man, Woman and Beast" (the innkeepers added "woman" in recent years).
Ezekiel How took over his father's tavern in 1746, and tradition holds that it was he who renamed it the Red Horse. As Colonel Ezekiel How, he met with members of the Boston Committee of Safety at the inn in the spring of 1775. How led the Sudbury detachment to the Battle of Concord Bridge on April, 19, 1775, and they fired some of the first shots of the Revolutionary War.
The Wayside Inn continued to offer lodgings of some sort throughout the years. Henry Ford purchased the inn in 1923. Ford wanted to preserve the inn for future generations, and he filled it with furniture and fittings of the period. A fire in December 1955 destroyed all but two rooms of the inn; fortunately, the Old Bar Room was one of those saved. The inn was restored to its mid- to late-19th century appearance, and today it's a National Historic Site.
You too can sit and share tales, and beer, in the Wayside Inn. You can also dine and spend the night; the inn has 10 guestrooms and is a popular site for weddings and special events. Or, just stop by for a visit and check out the museum rooms, which are filled with period furnishings. The inn also has a bakery and gift shop.
Each of the seven dining rooms contains a fireplace, as does the tavern. The dining rooms feature traditional New England fare, from steak to lobster pie to Indian pudding, served by costumed waitstaff. At the bar you can order a Coow Woow, a rum-based drink that is billed as America's first cocktail; or a Stonewall, which dates to colonial times. Large groups can partake in Meeting House Punch, made with beer, rum, sugar and lemons. Beer choices include Samuel Smith's, Sam Adams and Post Road, plus a house-label amber ale.
Allow yourself time to tour the grounds and the fine gardens. Nearby are an old schoolhouse, chapel, and a grist mill that grinds the flour used in the Wayside Inn's baked goods.
Revolutionary War buffs will want to mark April 19 on their calendar, when the Sudbury Companies of Minute and Militia and the Sudbury Ancient Fyfe and Drum Corps make the 12-mile journey to Concord to re-enact the Battle of Concord.
MORE HISTORIC TAVERNS
October 1997
