HISTORY OF THE WAYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The WHS formed in 1954 by J. Sidney Stone, Helen Morgan, George Bogren, Mabel Small Draper, Emily Blair (leader of Wayland’s Red Cross), Dorothy Small Damon, and Dorothy Draper Hamlen during meetings held in library and at Mainstone Farm. By March 1954 proposed officers met to approach the articles of organization and by May, the board received its official charter from the Commonwealth. In 1955 the Raytheon Corporation built a facility on Old Sudbury Road; the Braman House was gone and the Heard House was sold to the Historical Society in 1957.  In 1962, the society raised a fund to have it moved back to its site on Cochituate Road. Some wondered whether and where, the house should be relocated. The 1878 town hall which had been built on the original house site, had been demolished in 1958 and the site was vacant. All that remained were two sets of granite stairs-one leading to the library in the old town hall and the other to the main entrance. A stone wall bordering the sidewalk also remained. After completing a fund drive to pay for the move, the Heard house was prepared to go home. One positive note was that the cellar hold remaining from the old town hall was larger than needed for this house, so a new cement block foundation could be built with additional excavation, on which the old sills could rest. The present site is a few feet back from its original placement, according to local historian George Lewis who staked out the new location. Thus, the old house and all the memories associated with two families had come home as the Grout-Heard House. The first curator was longtime teacher Mabel Small Draper
from 1954-1964.

Subsequent curators included Emily Whitney Blair, another founder, who served until 1975: Jo Goeselt who lived in the house just south of the North Cemetery who served from 1983-1994 and Joanne Davis who served as curator and then as house manager (when Lois Davis became curator) until she retired in 2017.

Presidents have included popular, long time Wayland residents like George Lewis, Perry Hagenstein and Dick Hoyt.