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 the 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. Bylaws were adopted in 1955 and members began collecting almost immediately, though the major effort to build the collection and furnish the museum’s period rooms would come later.

The centerpiece of the Society’s work is the Grout-Heard House, constructed around 1742 and occupied by the same family — first the Grouts, then the Heards — almost continuously until 1954. Over those two centuries the house grew with its families: expanded around 1788, enlarged again in 1822, and fitted with a north bay addition around 1890. In 1955 the Raytheon Corporation built a facility on Old Sudbury Road, where the house then stood; 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 — its second homecoming, as the house had first been relocated from that site in 1878 to make way for a new town hall. 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 hole 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. In 1964, a two-story rear ell housing the kitchen and office was added, completing the building visitors see today. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

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, longtime Wayland residents like George Lewis, Perry Hagenstein, and Dick Hoyt. Today the organization operates as the Wayland Museum & Historical Society, continuing its mission to preserve, interpret, and share the history of Wayland and its people.