Beyond our Walls
Thanks to the web and digitization anyone can access all sorts of history. We’ve included here links to sites that will help you find more on Wayland and local history. Enjoy!
Digitized Town Maps
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Wayland GIS stores and maintains numerous maps (cadastral, environmental, historic, topographic, and aerial imagery) and digital information. Please contact the GIS Coordinator to review archives, purchase data, or request further information
Wayland High School History Project
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The Wayland High School History Project includes eleven volumes of project-based learning completed from 2001-2019 in Kevin Delaney’s US History classes. Each edition took two years to complete and constitutes what we hope is a rich local history archive of oral history, original research, and fascinating storytelling that show how national trends and developments played out in our town and region.
- Volume XI: Second World War Stories
- Volume X: METCO at 50
- Volume IX: The Great War Story of Herman Allen
- Volume VIII: Doughboys of Wayland: Stories of the Great War
- Volume VII: Over Here and Over There: Wayland During the WWI Era
- Volume VI: Lt. Col. Martin W. Joyce Papers
- Volume V: 20th Century American Stories
- Volume IV: Growing Up During Hard Times
- Volume III: An Age of Disillusion: Wayland During the Vietnam Era
- Volume II: Post-War Life in a Small Northern Town: Wayland, MA 1946-1960
- Volume I: War on Their Minds: Memories of the WWII Years
The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 by Alfred Sereno Hudson
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The Town of Wayland in the civil war of 1861-1865, as represented in the army and navy of the American union
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Town of Wayland Annual Listings (by house: name, DOB, occupation)
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Wayland in the Civil War
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An historical address delivered in the First Parish Church
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Wayland, Mass., Sunday, June 25, 1911 by Alfred Wayland Cutting. (History of the town in 1600’s)
The Mass. Memories Road Show (MMRS)—Wayland
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The MMRS at UMass Boston is an event-based public history project that digitizes family photos and memories shared by the people of Massachusetts. Over 400 photographs with text were collected in Wayland’s Road Show in 2014.
Wayland in Photographs
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Digital Commonwealth is a statewide consortium of libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies from across Massachusetts provides access to photographs, manuscripts, books, audio recordings, and other materials of historical interest. The Wayland Historical Society Collection includes materials related to the history of the early settlement of the towns of Sudbury and Wayland, Massachusetts. In 1835, the area known as East Sudbury was renamed Wayland. Materials include historical artifacts, documents, artwork, manuscripts, photographs, and maps.
Wayland Historical Commission
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The only Town of Wayland authority charged with town-wide preservation responsibilities. In accomplishing this mission, the Commission:
- Creates and maintains an inventory of historic assets, including houses, barns, farms, commercial buildings, cemeteries, bridges, monuments and markers, railroad artifacts, and landscapes;
- Seeks to protect the above-named assets from neglect, deterioration from the elements, and development;
- Provides educational opportunities to understand the history of the town and the historic context of important assets.
Vital records of Wayland, Massachusetts to the year 1850
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History of the Heard Family, of Wayland, MA
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Index of the location of historical maps in Wayland, Massachusetts
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Patent applications made by Wayland residents
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1754 Massachusetts Slave Census
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In 1754, Governor William Shirley had ordered that an enumeration of all slaves, both male and female, over the age of sixteen be completed by each town. This included Maine since it was still part of Massachusetts. (Wayland was Sudbury in 1754)
Genealogy
Massachusetts State Census 1855
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Massachusetts State Census 1865
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Cochituate Diehards
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A Facebook group dedicated to preserving and exploring the history and culture of Cochituate–a village formed from earlier Bentville and Lokerville once the shoe industry took off in the mid-1800s.
Historical Buildings and landmark
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The Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System (MACRIS) allows you to search the Massachusetts Historical Commission database for information on historic properties and areas in the Commonwealth. MACRIS provides photo, historical narrative, mapped location and bibliography. Wayland has 291 properties on this list.
Wayland Historic District Commission
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Wayland has two local historic districts: The Wayland Center Historic District at the historic center of town; and the Bow Road Historic District just north of the Town Center. Each was established by Town Meeting which provided the mechanism to preserve the integrity of these two areas of significant resources associated with Wayland’s historical development. The purpose of the Wayland Historic District Commission is to preserve and protect the distinctive characteristics of buildings and places significant in the history of the Town of Wayland; and to encourage design that is compatible with the existing architecture.
Wayland High School Reflector Yearbook
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The Annals of Sudbury, Wayland and Maynard, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
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Town of Wayland Annual Reports
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Early Census Making in Massachusetts 1643-1765
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List of 452 Sudbury (now in part Wayland) residents in 1771
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The History List
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Launched in the Boston area in 2011, The History List is the platform historical societies, historic sites, and other organizations use to attract and engage visitors and members.