THIS WEBSITE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Longfellow:  October 11, 1862, “Write a little upon the Wayside Inn, a beginning only.”

Plumb: October 11, 2009, “Write a little upon the howetavern.com, a beginning only.”

…wait, that’s a bit too strange!

A note about the reason for this site:  The few remaining inns & taverns are still here because of caretakers – those people through the generations who knew what treasures these were and worked hard to preserve them for our generation and future generations to enjoy. For that, I think we are all grateful.

I’d like to think the caretaker spirit lives on through this website. While all of these taverns are fairly well looked after by now (not much is needed except for volunteer time and funding), I did see a void on the internet. Prior to this site going live in Oct09, no one seemed to be ‘caring’ about these old inns too much in electronic format. Sure there are a few historical societies that post summary reference material and maybe a picture, but while good, they don’t have much depth or breath.  I’ve been collecting old pictures, stories, artifacts, and other documents about these taverns for many years. I thought if I put it all together then worked to constantly optimize, hopefully with your help, we’d have something pretty good in the public domain for all to respectfully share (sort of in the spirit of the Gutenburg Project and Google Books – the spreading of knowledge just makes the world a better place). What I’d really like to post are those rarer documents few people get to see. I’ll endeavor to work with historical societies and private individuals on this as time and opportunity permit.

Thanks for looking and hopefully finding this interesting. I’m not a graphic designer so I recognize there is room for improvement. Suggestions are welcome.  I’ve credited all the pictures I possibly can and those that aren’t credited I’m working on it. Most everything is sourced from the public domain or my personal collection. If there are any noticeable copyright issues, please advise asap. If you are owed a credit on something, please do send a note, I will gladly post or if necessary remove.

CONTACT INFORMATION: ODA591 at GMAIL.COM

Your humble servant,

BEP

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”  Einstein

“…We have not brought the men who told the tales at the Wayside Inn entirely out of the shadows, but if we have kept the shadows from engulfing them completely and have paved the way for other workmen, we shall have done the thing that we so much wanted to do.  And we have found happiness in the quest.”  John Van Schaick (Characters in the Tales of a Wayside Inn, 1939)