Fireside Chat with Paul Revere at the Wayside Inn

Join Paul Revere (as portrayed by Michael Lepage) by fireside at the Wayside Inn for a spirited review of the notoriously inaccurate Longfellow poem that immortalized his Midnight Ride.

Heavy hors d’oeuvres included with the price of a ticket. Drinks available for purchase at the bar.

Wayside Inn

The Wayside Inn owes as much to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as Paul Revere does. Revere was an obscure (albeit important) patriot, while the Wayside Inn was an obscure boarding house. Then Longfellow wrote about them.

The Wayside Inn has accommodated travelers along the Boston Post Road since 1716. Just a few miles down the road from historic Minuteman National Historical Park in Concord, it began life 300 years ago as Howe’s Tavern. David Howe ran it as an extension of his own home.

David handed the property to his son Ezekial – a soldier in Sudbury’s militia during the American Revolution. The Howe family continued to operate and expand the inn until 1861, serving traffic between Worcester and Boston.

The inn stopped operating as a traditional inn in 1861. The owners converted it into something more like a boarding house and dance hall.

But in 1862, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sealed the inn’s place in history. Longfellow visited the building and published his now-famous Tales of the Wayside Inn in 1863. From that time on, the inn was the destination of tourists and literary pilgrims who wanted to see first-hand the inspiration for Longfellow’s book.

In 1923, the inn took another important step into immortality when automobile magnate Henry Ford bought the property.  Ford then began the restoration and expansion that gave shape to the inn’s current configuration.

Paul Revere

Few people outside of the Boston area knew who Paul Revere was until Longfellow wrote Paul Revere’s Ride. Even during his lifetime, Bostonians knew Revere as a successful businessman who had lots of friends. That’s how his obituary read after he died on May 10, 1818. It didn’t even mention the April 18, 1775 ride.

Paul Revere, DDS

Paul Revere had made the same ride a week and a half earlier. He made lots of rides, in fact. On Dec. 13, 1774, Revere rode all the way to Portsmouth, N.H., to warn the patriots that the King’s troops were on their way to seize gunpowder from Fort William and Mary in New Castle. The redcoats arrived three days late, and they didn’t intend to take the powder in the first place. But a skirmish did result — between 400 New Hampshire volunteers and six British soldiers defending the fort. The redcoats surrendered.

Then, 11 days before his midnight ride, Revere rode to Concord to warn that the redcoats would probably come to seize the large cache of military supplies stored there. The patriots moved the supplies.

* * *

Learn more Revolutionary history in this complete guide to Revolutionary War Sites in New England. Brought to you by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy in paperback, here to order an ebook.
 

Image of the Wayside Inn: By Dudesleeper at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14217462.