Wayland

Understand

History

The Puritan Village

Wayland was the first settlement of the Sudbury plantation, established in 1638, and incorporated in 1639. Among the 60 original men, women, and children, were 15 Puritan families who had traveled in the ship Confidence from England. Bringing with them the English pattern of farming, with collective fields and grazing along with individual lots, they named their town Sudbury after the town in Suffolk, where their pastor Edmund Brown and some of their company had lived. The original settlement was clustered one half mile northwest of where the town center is now located. Wayland and Sudbury residents established the Sudbury Valley Trust in 1953 in part to protect these lands. Today Wayland is in the top 5 communities in the state in conservation acreage.

East Sudbury 1780-1835, renamed Wayland in 1835

The first US census in 1790 showed that East Sudbury was a farming community of 801 people in 112 houses. Today’s Boston Post Road ran through it on the way to Albany. Travelers stopped at the Corner Tavern where Old Connecticut Path split off down to Hartford, near today’s Old Coach Grill. The Pequod Inn stood at the intersection of the Post Road and the roads north to western Sudbury and Concord. Baldwin ’s tavern was near the four arch bridge over the river. The First Parish Church was built in 1815, complete with a bell by Paul Revere.

In 1835, the men attending a town meeting voted to change the name East Sudbury to Wayland, to honor Rev. Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, who was a friend of Judge Edward Mellen (whose law offices are found in the Wayland Historic District in a small white house at the intersection of Boston Post Road and Old Sudbury Road).

Get in

The Mass Pike, or I-90 is the main highway accessible in the town. Take Exit 117 to Route 30 eastbound to access Wayland. Two additional routes, MA-30 and US-20, run through the main commercial areas of the town; Cochituate and Wayland Center, respectively. These roads connect the town with the retail centers of Framingham, Natick and Marlborough to the west, and Boston’s inner suburbs to the east.

There is no public transit in Wayland. The closest stations are West Natick on the commuter rail, and Riverside on the green line. Neither is convenient and it would be a pricey Uber or Lyft to get you into Wayland.

Get around

Wayland is mostly bustling with people traveling by car and bicycle. It is a small enough town for everything to be accessible by car or bike alone.

Go next

• Natick — Right outside of Wayland is the Natick Collection, one of the US's biggest shopping malls.
• Boston — visit the harbor and all of the lovely shops and dining available in the city.