Wayside Inn station
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox station
| name = Wayside Inn
| style = B&M
| image = The former site of the Wayside Inn station in November 2024.jpg
| caption = The former station site in November 2024
| address =
| borough = Sudbury, Massachusetts
| coordinates = {{Coord|42.374467|-71.456761|display=inline,title}}
| line = Central Massachusetts Railroad mainline
| other =
| platform = 1 (former)
| tracks = 1 (former)
| parking =
| bicycle =
| passengers =
| pass_year =
| pass_percent =
| opened = {{Start date|1881|10|1|df=y}}
| closed = Before 1944
| rebuilt = 1897
| owned = Boston and Maine Railroad when closed
Site now owned by MBTA
| zone =
| other_services_header = Former services
| other_services = {{Adjacent stations
|system1=Boston and Maine Railroad|line1=Boston-Northampton|left1=Ordway|right1=South Sudbury}}
| mapframe = yes
| mapframe-custom = {{Infobox mapframe |shape=none |line=none |marker=rail |marker-color=#888 |zoom=15 }}
}}
Wayside Inn station was a flag stop station in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
History
File:Wayside Inn station site, May 2017.JPG
Created by the Massachusetts Central Railroad in 1881 as a simple platform, it was named for the Wayside Inn approximately a mile south, to which it provided service.{{rp||pages=192}} By 1885 the successor Central Massachusetts Railroad provided service, and by 1887 the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) leased the ROW and named it the Central Massachusetts Branch. By 1897 a shelter building was built by B&M.{{rp||pages=192}} The building was burned down by vandals sometime in the 1940s and no remains of it are visible today.{{cite book |last1=Plumb |first1=Brian E. |title=A History of Longfellow's Wayside Inn |date=2011 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-1609493967 |location=Charleston, SC}}{{rp||pages=192}}
The small wooden shelter was built in a Japanese style, as nearly all consecutive stations on the line were built in a unique style to create the illusion of variety.{{cite book |last1=The Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society, Inc. |title=The Central Mass |date=2008 |publisher=Marker Press |isbn=978-0-9662736-3-2 |edition=Second |location=Brimfield, MA |page=1 |ref=CM}}{{rp|87–90}} The name of the architect responsible for their design has been lost to time.{{rp|87}} The station was located on Dutton Road in what is now the Wayside Inn Historic District. Passengers included innkeeper Edward Lemon, Babe Ruth and Henry Ford.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-07 |title=33 Wayside Inn Railroad Waiting Room |url=http://sudbury01776.org/tour2.html#stop=32 |access-date=2024-10-08 |website=Sudbury Historical Society}}
In 2022, a buried transmission line project between Sudbury and Hudson began construction under the former Massachusetts Central Railroad ROW for which it provided service.{{Cite web |title=Sudbury-Hudson—Eversource |url=https://etlcorp.com/projects/sudbury-hudson-eversource/ |access-date=2023-09-20 |website=E.T. & L. Corp. |language=en-US}} This project subsidized the cost of building a section of the Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside, which was named for this station and the Inn, and which is expected to complete construction in 2025.{{Cite web |last=Autler |first=Gerald |title=Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside |url=https://www.mass.gov/info-details/mass-central-rail-trail-wayside |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation |language=en}} As part of this project, DCR will install granite markers to commemorate the archaeological site.{{Cite web |date=2022-10-19 |title=Memorandum of Agreement Between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Massachusetts Historical Commission, NSTAR d/b/a Eversource Energy and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Regarding the Sudbury-Hudson Transmission Reliability and Mass Central Rail Trail Project, Hudson, Stow, Marlborough, and Sudbury, Massachusetts |url=https://sudbury.ma.us/historicalcommission/wp-content/uploads/sites/300/2022/11/NAE-2017-01406-20221019_Executed_MOA.pdf |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=Town of Sudbury, Massachusetts}}{{rp||pages=|page=6}}
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References
{{Reflist}}
Category:Former Boston and Maine Railroad stations
Category:Buildings and structures in Sudbury, Massachusetts
Category:Railway stations in the United States opened in 1881
Category:Railway stations in the United States closed in the 1940s
Category:1881 establishments in Massachusetts
Category:1940s disestablishments in Massachusetts
Category:Railway stations in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
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