America's Oldest Inn Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury Massachusetts
by Constantine Gregory
Title
America's Oldest Inn Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury Massachusetts
Artist
Constantine Gregory
Medium
Photograph - Photo Art
Description
America's Oldest Inn - Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts
The oldest operating inn in the United States, Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts,began as Howe's Tavern in 1716 It thrived initially because of its location,on the Old Boston Post Road, one of the first mail routes in Colonial America, and a busy coach route between Boston and New York.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow spent time at Howe's Tavern in 1862. A result of that stay was the publication in 1873 of Tales of a Wayside Inn, a collection of poems he wrote based on stories he heard about the house and the Howes. Its first printing sold out on the very first day. The best known poem of the collection is popularly known as The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
The inn was formally named Longfellow's Wayside Inn in 1897,by the then owner Edward Rivers Lemon, a wealthy merchant of those days.
Henry Ford purchased the inn from the Lemon family in 1923, restored and furnished the inn in 18th century style, and bought land to expand the property to 3,000 acres. It currently operates as a nonprofit living history inn and museum.
Apart from the Longfellow connection, another feature that draws patrons today is the often reported presence of a resident ghost - Jerusha Howe, the sister of one of the Howe family members.
Uploaded
April 29th, 2014
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