There was some Town control with licenses granted by the Court. The proprietors were usually men of prominence, holding positions in Town government or of high social standing. Around 1780 general price lists were established for those taverns on the more heavily traveled roads. Whiskey and West Indian and New England rum were sold to both travelers and villagers. Meals and lodging were available, horses boarded or hired out and staples such as molasses, spices, cloth and kitchen utensils were for sale.

It is amusing to read some of the rules for those stopping the night. "No more than five to a bed, No boots to be worn in bed, No dogs allowed upstairs, No razor grinders or tinkers taken in, Organ grinders to sleep in the wash house."

The arrival of a stage or private coach was the signal for the landlord to greet the guests, for the maids to prepare refreshments, and for the hosteliers to make ready for the oxen or horses. Mail was delivered, baggage discharged, and if the stage was to proceed immediately horses had to be changed, baggage and mail stowed, and passengers mounted.

One of the earliest taverns in Natick was owned by Peletiah Morse who built his home in 1748 at 33 Eliot Street which at that time was a route to New York. His family lived in the tavern, but rooms were available to travelers, meetings were held there, and prisoners were boarded there before other facilities were available. The tavern offered a respite from the cold of the unheated Meetinghouse during the long Sabbath services and strong drink was commonly served.

In April of 1782 Eliakim Morrill made his first purchase of two and one quarter acres and thirty-three rods of land from the heirs of Jonathan Carver in South Natick. Land which now is home to the Shaw Park, the Goin Bailey House and the Natick Common Office buildings.

On this land he built the "Old Tavern," which he ran for seventeen years, with the help of his wife Ruth Russell. In those early years there were few stage coaches, no railroads, and nearly all the travel on this old road, now Route 16, between Boston and New York was on horse back or in rude wagons. His reign at the Old Tavern was followed by a long line of tavern keepers, among them, Ebenezer Newell, David Dana, Peter Twitchell, Luther Dana, John Brown, Samuel Jones, Calvin Shepard, Job Brooks, William Drake, Daniel Chamberlain, John Gilman and James Whittemore.

Goin Bailey took over the Tavern in 1849 and kept it until his death in 1875. The original Tavern stood until March 2, 1872 when it was destroyed by the fire which wiped out the South Natick business district. In 1873 Mr. Bailey erected "Bailey's Hotel." Water for washing was forced by a pump located on the river bank, to a sixty barrel tank at the top of the building. Together the Baileys dispensed hospitality and entertained weary and hungry travelers. Fires of hickory and oak wood blazed in the wide open hearth, in the low studded "common Room," and the loggerheads were heated in the coals. The fragrant smell of turkey, beef, or pork roasting on the spit before the open fire in the kitchen filled all the house.

In 1887, the Common Council of Boston, on a visit to the line of the Water Works took the Boston and Albany Railroad cars to Wellesley and thence by stage, or "barge", to South Natick.

Almond Bailey, Goin Bailey's son continued to manage the hotel until 1908 when it was purchased by Mrs. Robert G. Shaw. After the renovations made by Mrs. Robert Shaw in 1909 it was called the, "Old Natick Inn." and advertised as situated on the beautiful Charles River above the dam at Old Town Park. In 1915 Mrs. Shaw bought the adjacent block of stores, which were torn down to build an annex to the Inn. In 1930, after a period of mismanagement and disuse, the Inn was torn down and a park made on its site. The Annex was purchased by Raymond Cooper and divided into a drug store and a hardware store. Later the drug store expanded into the entire space. In 1995 we again find drug store occupying half the space and a gourmet coffee shop the other half.

In Natick Center the Old Morse Tavern stood on what is now East Central Street. It was owned and operated by Rufus Morse, one of the thirteen children of Samuel and Sybil Jennings Morse. The building had its long front on East Central Street and its western end on Hayes Street. The second story was one long hall which when completed was dedicated by a grand ball. Eighty couples came by stage, from Boston, and the magnificence of the occasion was long discussed. This hall was the scene of the dances, the parties, and the lectures of the village for many years. In 1845 the Takawampbait Lodge of Odd Fellows was instituted and the meetings were held here. The family lived in the lower part of the building. Mr. Morse kept a small store where he sold milk, West India goods, and like all groceries of the period, New England rum.

After the railroad was built in 1835, the Long Pond Hotel was erected near the depot and such trade as there was gravitated to it leaving the old inn with little business. After a few years Mr. Morse turned the building into tenements. Henry Wilson's parents were one of the families who made their home there. In the 1860's the building was sawed into three parts and moved to different locations. The St. Patrick's Church Rectory now occupies the location where the old Inn stood.

The Long Pond Hotel was dedicated with a grand ball held in the third floor ballroom. The Ball was led by two prominent Natick citizens, Russell L. Bent and Mrs. Charles Underwood. A fire destroyed much of the building and it was rebuilt as the Ahern Block.

After the Great Fire of 1874 in downtown Natick the Wilson House was built on Summer Street so the public could be accommodated in first class surroundings. It was built by Mr. John Eliot Fiske, a member of one of Natick's oldest families. Mr. Fiske was an ardent advocate of temperance, and dedicated the hotel to temperance at a great opening banquet. It was also dedicated to Henry Wilson who was a great supporter of the "Cause." When Mr. Fiske moved to California the hotel policy changed. Proprietor L. E. Gleason advertised the hotel as, "new with all modern improvements and steam heat." The hotel eventually housed several stores and became a boarding hotel for bachelors

Another very old Tavern stood at the foot of Walnut Street at the Turnpike. It was built by Robert Farris and the first Post Office was located here from 1820 until 1840 when it was moved to the center of town. This Tavern shown in a slide made by Edgar Hayes in 1895 would appear to be able to offer only refreshment and possibly new horses.

Haines or Haynes Tavern was kept in a house and run by the Haines, but owned by Chester Felch and is still standing on the northwest corner of Bacon and North Main Street in the section known as Felchville. There being no tavern in the town between Morrill's in South Natick and Haines (Haynes) Tavern in Felchville. Today it is known as the Isaac Felch house. Prior to building the Turnpike, the old road from Needham to Framingham was and still is called Bacon Street.. (They were a numerous family, sons of Daniel and Elizabeth Ferritt Haynes by the mother's side had Indian and African blood in their veins. The Haynes brothers were bachelors and feared the rivalry of the new tavern and when the dedication of it was to take place tried to compete with the new place by issuing invitation to one to be held at the old stand. The patrons, however, went to the "new tavern" and the bachelors were beaten.

The inn at North Main Street and the Worcester Turnpike was from the days of the stage coach kept as a hostelry. It has been known as Black's Tavern, the Haynes Tavern, Penniman's, Lake Shore House, Elm Park Hotel, and Sunnyside. In l833 when it was called Penniman's Tavern, Henry Wilson boarded there on his arrival from New Hampshire. As the Lake Shore House it was run by H. T. Hildreth. Hildreth built a large hall where Balls were held, but when this proved unprofitable it was turned into a carriage manufactory. In 1872 it was purchased by C. H. Sherman and was reconstructed as a hotel.

In 1873 it was advertised that the hotel "had been refitted and furnished with modern improvements for the comfort of guests, affording one of the most attractive homes for the traveling public. The Table d'Hote, is furnished with all the delicacies of the season, and no pains whatever will be spared to cater to the wants of the public, and everything that pertains to a first class Hotel will be here found, and every want supplied, at terms the most reasonable and in style the most recherche. Omnibuses pass the house on arrival and departure of trains. In connection with the House is Elm Park, one of the best half mile tracks in the State. Horses trained by C. W. Howland."

John L. Sullivan trained at Elm Park for his fight with Joe Goss, when the "Boston strong boy," made his debut in 1881. David Sheehan managed both the hotel and a fast professional baseball team. In 1887 John Draper bought Elm Park house and the race track. Trotting meets were popular and was an attraction both to the track and to the hotel. Called in later days the Sunnyside Hotel the building was moved in the late 1920's to the south side of Worcester Street and the east side of North Main Street and used to manufacture a soft drink called Rex Beverage. It was dismantled in the 1930's to allow for the construction of the Route 9 ramps.

So ended the era of the old taverns and hotels in Natick.