Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 19, 2026

Redstone School

The Redstone School is a one-room school located in the Wayside Inn Historic District of Sudbury, Massachusetts. Built in 1798, it is believed to be the school to which Mary Sawyer took her lamb in the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

Last revised
Jul 19, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
338 w
Citations
11
Source
Redstone School
Map
Interactive map of the Redstone School area
General information
LocationSudbury, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates42°21′31″N 71°28′16″W / 42.358650°N 71.471215°W / 42.358650; -71.471215
Completed1798 (1798)
Technical details
Floor count1

The Redstone School is a one-room school located in the Wayside Inn Historic District of Sudbury, Massachusetts.1 Built in 1798, it is believed to be the school to which Mary Sawyer took her lamb in the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb".23

At the time of Sawyer's attendance at the school, it was located in Sterling, Massachusetts. Since before the American Civil War, the building had served as a barn for a local Baptist Church parsonage. In early 1926,4 the property was purchased by Henry Ford5 and relocated around 20 miles (32 km) to the east, to a churchyard, on the property of Longfellow's Wayside Inn, where it stands today.2 Ford operated the school for the benefit of children of his employees at the Wayside Inn.6

On January 17, 1927, the building reopened as a school,4 operating for a further twenty-four years, with an average of around sixteen students of grades one through four.6 It closed permanently in 1951.26

The school has windows on the right-hand side and at the rear; its blackboard occupies the interior of the left-hand wall.

References

References

  1. "U.S. Massachusetts - Sudbury, Redstone School". www.digitalcommonwealth.org. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  2. Teaching in a one-room schoolhouse, August 3, 2019, retrieved November 22, 2022
  3. Crane, Ellery Bicknell (1907). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 1. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 377.
  4. "School Made Famous by Mary and her Lamb Reopened Today". New Britain Herald. New Britain, Connecticut. January 7, 1927. p. 11. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
  5. Bryan, F.R. (2002). Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford. Wayne State University Press. p. 381. ISBN 978-0-8143-3684-7. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
  6. Bryan, Ford R. (2002). Friends, Families & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford. Wayne State University Press. p. 381.