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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2007-04 > 1176201176


From: "Richard J.Saunders" <>
Subject: Re: [S-I] Longfellow's Wayside Inn was originally known as Howe'sTavern from 1716 to 1861
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 05:32:56 -0500
References: <041020070126.9562.461AE7BF000F21CF0000255A22064244130A049D0A0304@comcast.net>


Longfellow's Wayside Inn was originally known as Howe's Tavern from 1716 to
1861. The first innkeeper, David Howe, operated what was then called a "hous
of entertainment" along the old Boston Post Road in the same spot the
Wayside Inn stands today. David and his wife Hebzibah's first home appeared
quite a bit different than the Wayside Inn's rambling structure. It was
typical by 18th century standards but small when compared to today's homes;
two total rooms, one over the other. He raised his first five children in
this house, and it is believed that he doubled its size, adding two more
rooms, by the time he received a license to operate an inn in 1716. The size
of the Howe's home and business would continue to grow as each subsequent
innkeeper would leave his own mark on the Colonial landmark.

David Howe was a successful innkeeper - his father and grandfather were
innkeepers in neighboring towns - and thrived by way of the busy coach
traffic to and from the cities of Boston and Worcester. In 1746 he passed
the family business to his son, Ezekiel, a Lt. Col. in the Revolutionary War
who led the Sudbury Minute and Militia to Concord center on that fateful day
of April 19, 1775.

Ezekiel was a prosperous innkeeper, acquiring a set of expensive export
china for his daughter as a wedding gift in 1788 (a cup and saucer from this
set is in the Inn's permanent collection). Ezekiel passed the tavern
business to his son, Adam, in 1796, who in turn handed it down to his son,
Lyman, in 1830. Lyman died in 1861 having never married, and the Inn was
inherited by relatives who ceased operating the Howe home as an overnight
accommodation. Local folks rented the hall for dances, and itinerant farmers
occupied smaller rooms for lengthy stays, but the Howe innkeeping business
would not thrive again until a wool merchant from Malden, Massachusetts
showed new interest in 1897.

Edward Rivers Lemon, an admirer of antiquities, purchased the Inn as "a
retreat for literary pilgrims,"capitalizing on the interest generated by a
widely read book of poems published in 1863 by Henry Longfellow called Tales
of a Wayside Inn. Longfellow visited the Howe Tavern in 1862, and based his
book on a group of fictitious characters that regularly gathered at the old
Sudbury tavern. Lyman Howe was the character featured in "The Landlord's
Tale," where Longfellow's penned the immortal phrase "listen my children and
you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." Lemon renamed the old
Howe Tavern Longfellow's Wayside Inn and operated it with his wife, Cora,
until his death in 1919.

In 1923, Cora Lemon sold the Inn to automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, who
would eventually have the most visual impact on the Wayside Inn site. He
moved the one-room Redstone School to the grounds in 1925; built the Grist
Mill in 1929 and the Martha-Mary Chapel in 1940; and acquired some 3,000
acres around the Inn. He developed a trade school for boys which operated
from 1928 to 1947, and many believe he intended to build the "village
site"he eventually created in Dearborn, Michigan, right here in Sudbury.
While he stopped short of that goal, he did create the non-profit status
that the Inn operates under today. Henry Ford was the last private owner of
the Wayside Inn

The Wayside Inn Archives
The Wayside Inn Archives contains over half a million documents relating to
the Howe family and the development of what would eventually be called
Longfellow's Wayside Inn. Included among the papers are deeds, wills,
photographs, news clippings, menus, innkeeping records, and other material
generated by the Inn since its inception in 1716. While the oldest document
in the collection dates to 1686, the Wayside Inn Archives also houses papers
related to late 19th and early 20th century business while the Inn was owned
and operated by wool merchant Edward Lemon and, later, auto-magnate Henry
Ford. The Wayside Inn Archives is open by appointment only. All queries for
access can be addressed via e-mail to:

Guy LeBlanc - History Department



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