The Gristmill at the Wayside Inn

Adeline Lunt recollects an earlier time at the Inn -

“The old mill (and is ever a country picture perfect without one?), ruinous and romantic, was yet near enough to the house to make it a favorite stroll for moon-lit evenings or sunset sittings.” (1880)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Al Petty performing for the 80th Anniversary celebration of the Wayside Inn Gristmill, 11/21/09

 

There had been a mill on the property since David How’s time, that old mill deteriorated and was taken down completely shortly before the new mill was erected. The new mill ground its first corn on Thanksgiving Day, 1929. Today, it is a place for visitors to watch the grinding of corn and wheat for use in the Wayside Inn’s bakery and for sale in the gift shop.

From 1926 to 1929 the Fitz Water Wheel Company and a former employee John B. Campbell began to construct this new mill. It is a replica of an old mill and was constructed from plans drawn by John Blake Campbell. It was built near an old mill site built by David Howe circa. 1744. The mill was built to produce flour and meal for the inn and also serve as a tourist attraction for visitors. Much of the interior wood was chestnut. Four fresh water quartz millstones, weighing a ton apiece, were shipped from La Ferte sous Jouarre, France, at a total cost of $238.00, and an 18 foot diameter overshot water wheel was purchased from the Fitz Water Wheel Company, although a wheel of Mr. Campbell’s own design soon replaced it.  All in all, this mill was built to be, according to Campbell who said”.. it was the finest mill ever built.”

The mill was used by Pepperidge Farm for their Whole Wheat Breads and it was also used by the Wayside Inn Grist Mill in Sudbury, Massachusetts. When the family sold Pepperidge Farms the new owners could not bother getting flour from small milling operations. Afterwards the mill is where King Arthur’s stone ground whole wheat flour was first milled. The success of King Arthur’s stone ground whole wheat flour is statistically even more impressive. The company started selling whole wheat flour when it operated the Wayside Inn Grist Mill in Sudbury, Massachusetts.  The two pound bags milled in Sudbury and sold by King Arthur “went nowhere,” Frank E. Sands II recalled. “My wife, Brinna, convinced me that serious bakers interested in using whole wheat flour weren’t about to bother with a small bag.” So, in 1981, the company switched to five-pound bags. It took only several years for King Arthur to become the predominant seller of whole wheat flour in New England with a current share that exceeds 80%. 

(from angelfire.com/journal/millbuilder/album8. html)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo above shows Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone inspecting a water wheel at the Old Evans Mill, an antique mill in Leadmine, West Virginia (circa 1918). The wheel is quite similar to the one Mr. Ford had fabricated out of steel for the Wayside Inn gristmill (completed in 1929).

1933

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1935

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1938

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ford at the Mill, 1930’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 1936

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1950’s 

 

 

1962

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(see the digitally enhanced collection for some real nice shots of this area)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009 (newly painted wheel). Nice color for wedding pictures (I guess), but I thought the old look was much better.

 

GATE HOUSE (also known as Innkeeper’s House)

The Gate House is built of timbers from the old Sun Tavern in Watertown. It originally straddled the Inn driveway near the rose garden and was moved to its present location by Henry Ford. (Sudbury Historical Society)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1933

 

 

 

 

 

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1939

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Barn

The Wayside Inn Barn which was moved from its original position by Atherton Rogers around 1910. The barn houses the Wayside Inn’s Abbott and Downing coach which was restored by the Sudbury Companies of Militia and Minute in 1974. The coach completed a Star Route mail run between Sudbury and Louden, New Hampshire behind a four-horse hitch. The barn is still used to house the livestock brought by Inn guests. (Sudbury Historical Society)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(images above from gigapan)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barn, 1800’s, looking from (now) Rte.20 down at the Wayside Inn.

 Cider Mill

Ford purchased this 18th Century building in New Hampshire not long after buying the Inn in 1923. Across the lane is the cooling cellar which stored preserves, vegetables and fruit raised in the Inn gardens to be served to Inn guests. During the Cold war a 200-bed field hospital occupied much of the space. (Sudbury Historical Society)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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