While on a business trip to Sudbury, Massachusetts, I had the opportunity to stay in Longfellow's Wayside Inn, the oldest operating Inn in America. Built by David How as a two-room homestead in 1702, the building was expanded in 1716 when How became licensed to operate it as an Inn.
My co-worker, Carolyn, and I enjoyed the same tranquility that the Wayside had offered to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which he described in the Prelude to his well-known Tales of a Wayside Inn. In addition to the peace and quiet of the place, we loved the traditional New England fare served in front of a roaring fire. Carolyn and I shook our heads in amazement that our other team members had chosen to stay in a chain hotel down the street!
Perhaps our co-workers were deterred by the fact that there were no TVs in the rooms. But in our mind that just added to the historical atmosphere. What fascinated us the most about The Wayside Inn, however, were the Inn's hidden secrets. In our rooms, we found letters -- dozens and dozens of letters -- all hidden in the secret drawers of our antique desks, and also behind the paintings on the walls and in nooks and crannies throughout the room!
"Dear SDS" (Secret Drawer Society), the letters all began, and then the writers wrote about their experiences at the Inn or about themselves. This tradition has been going on for quite some time, the people at the front desk told us. In fact, there are so many letters added each year that the Inn stores the older ones in the cellar of the Martha-Mary Chapel, the white clapboard church perched on top of a grassy knoll next door. Carolyn and I hastily wrote our own letters, tucking them into the secret drawers in our desks so future quests could read them.
One night, Carolyn, who stayed in Room 9, one of the oldest rooms in the Inn, thought she felt a ghostly breath in her ear. "It might be that I had too much to drink in the bar," she said with a laugh. But the story goes that the Inn is haunted by Jerusha How, the oldest daughter of Adam How. Known as "The Belle of Sudbury", Jerusha, who was very refined and talented, refused all suitors. It seems she was engaged to an Englishman who sailed home to arrange the match but never returned, and her ghost still appears in Rooms 9 and 10, waiting in vain for her English lover.
If you're interested in a good book about The Wayside Inn, I suggest As Ancient Is This Hostelry: The Story of The Wayside Inn. You can order it from the Inn, or online at Amazon.com.
Photos courtesy of Longfellow's Wayside Inn.
