Gate House &
Present Day

The Wayside Inn Foundation owns, operates, and maintains The Wayside Inn Historic Site, a campus of nine historic structures on more than 100 acres of land, including Longfellow’s Wayside Inn. The Foundation is a Massachusetts nonprofit charitable corporation that promotes early American humanities through hospitality, education, and programming, and continues an innkeeping tradition dating back to 1716. The site provides an opportunity for visitors from near and far to gather, engage, and find meaning, relevance, and inspiration through a place-based exploration of history.

The historic structures and collections maintained by the nonprofit organization today are largely in existence because of Henry and Clara Ford’s vision for the property back in 1923. As stewards of the site The Wayside Inn Foundation constantly seeks new ways to tell the old stories. In the fall of 2021, The Foundation began renovating the c. 1913 Gate House to create an archives and research center to house the majority of The Wayside Inn’s collections. In this space there will be opportunities for collaborations between staff, volunteers, and researchers; along with improved access to and management of the collections which will lead to more active research and education about the past.