Longfellow’s Wayside Inn

Posted: 05.16.2025 | Updated: 05.16.2025

Located just outside of Boston in the quaint town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn is one of the oldest inns in the United States. With a history going back to the early 1700s, it’s no surprise that the inn is as well known for its historical significance as it is for its ghosts.

Stories of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn being haunted date back to shortly after the Civil War, and guests are still encountering the spirits that reside there.

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Who Haunts Longfellow’s Wayside Inn?

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn is primarily known for being haunted by former resident Jerusha Howe. Jerusha helped manage the inn with her brother before she died in 1842. It’s been said that Jerusha died from a broken heart, and that her spirit still seeks male companionship two centuries after her death. 

Jerusha’s ghost is so famous that guests come to the Longfellow Wayside Inn specifically to sleep in her old bedroom. Leaving notes for Jerusha has become a tradition as well.

History of Longfellow’s Wayside Inn

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn started as a simple two-room house built sometime between 1703 and 1707 by David Howe. In 1716, David acquired a license to turn his home into a public house and named it How’s Tavern (the family later added an “e” to the end of their name). 

Under the management of David’s son, Colonel Ezekiel Howe, the tavern became known as “The Red Horse” and was a meeting place for militia during the Revolutionary War. 

As generations of Howes passed through the tavern, they expanded upon it and turned it into an inn. In total, seven additions were made to the original two-room house. The last Howe to own the property was Lyman Howe, who managed it with his sister, Jerusha, starting in 1830. 

After Jerusha’s death, the inn fell into disrepair, and Lyman accumulated debt. With no children to inherit the inn when Lyman died in the early 1860s, it was auctioned off, along with most of the Howe family heirlooms. 

The inn was purchased by Henry Ford in 1923 and became part of a one-hundred-acre historic site consisting of multiple buildings. When a fire destroyed much of the inn in 1955, it was painstakingly rebuilt to look as it would have in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Today, Longfellow’s Wayside remains a popular tourist destination with a restaurant and 10 guest rooms.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In 1862, acclaimed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stayed at the Wayside Inn. Longfellow had been battling writer’s block as he grieved the death of his wife. 

However, the old inn provided much inspiration, and he published Tales of a Wayside Inn the following year. This collection included a poem titled “The Landlord’s Tale,” which is today better known as “Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride.”

Longfellow’s description of the Wayside Inn did not present it in the best light. He referred to the inn as “Old Hobgoblin Hall. With weather-stains upon the wall, And stairways worn, and crazy doors, And creaking and uneven floors, And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall.” 

The dilapidated inn would wall into further disrepair over the following three decades until it was purchased in 1897 and renamed Longfellow’s Wayside Inn to honor the poet who made it famous. 

Hauntings at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn has a reputation for classic hauntings. Guests and staff alike report disembodied voices, unexplained footsteps, objects moving on their own, and the distinct feeling that someone or something is watching them.

The earliest recorded haunting at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn dates back to 1868. In this account, a woman described witnessing a female apparition half floating/half running through the Old Hall, which was nicknamed “The Hobgoblin Room” after Longfellow stayed at the inn. Although no one knows for certain who this female entity was, it may have been the ghost of former innkeeper Jerusha Howe.

Jerusha Howe

The resident ghost at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn is Jerusha Howe. Jerusha grew up in the inn and managed it with her brother, Lyman, until she died from tuberculosis at age 44 in 1842. Jerusha was known as “the belle of Sudbury” and owned the first piano in town. 

Known for her musical talents, warm personality, and beauty, Jerusha reportedly had a broken heart. It’s documented that she fell in love with a man from England whom she was to marry. 

The man returned to England to make wedding arrangements, but was never heard from again. Although he may have jilted Jerusha, it’s more likely he died in a perilous trip across the Atlantic. After that, Jerusha never married or had children.

The Haunted Rooms

Rooms 9 and 10 at the inn were Jerusha’s former living quarters, and it seems she still resides there in spirit form. Men who stay in these rooms report feeling touched during the night and waking up to see Jerusha’s ghost standing at the foot of the bed. One recalled, “Around 5 a.m., she came into my room, sat at the foot of my bed, and a few moments later, walked in front of my bed (she looked like a small strip of green light), disappeared in front of the door.”

At some point in the 1900s, guests began leaving notes for Jerusha when they stayed in her rooms. Those who leave notes are known as members of the Secret Drawer Society. 

These letters can be found tucked into ceiling beams, baseboards, and other crevices. The letters detail how guests enjoyed their stay or encountered Jerusha firsthand.

In a 2011 episode of Ghost Adventures, Zak Bagans and his team stayed at the inn on Valentine’s Day and recorded an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) that they believed to be Jerusha. Zak also spent the night in Jerusha’s room and said he had a romantic encounter with her.

Haunted Boston

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn is a truly unique location where guests can enjoy a slice of history alongside the supernatural. If you go, be sure to leave a note for Jerusha. You might even see her there.  

Want to learn more about the hauntings of the Boston area? Don’t forget to book your ghost tour with Boston Ghosts today! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog for more real Massachusetts hauntings.

Sources:

• https://www.wayside.org/our-story

• https://newengland.com/travel/massachusetts/wayside-inn-ghost-real-or-imagined/

• https://www.gothichorrorstories.com/gothic-travel/haunted-inns-of-new-england-longfellows-wayside-inn-and-the-ghost-of-jerusha-howe/

• https://hauntedhouses.com/massachusetts/longfellows-wayside-inn/