Stone walls lining Wayland’s roads and winding through its woods offer a glimpse of the town’s past while preserving the remains of its agricultural history.
Once built along the edges of pastures to mark property lines, many of these walls remain standing as former farmland has returned to forests or been removed to build new homes and roads. Today, they provide a physical record of how the land was once used.
Robert Thorson, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut who has extensively studied stone walls in New England, calls them the region’s “signature landform.”
Thorson said European settlers cultivating the soil encountered the stones and needed somewhere to put them. Between 1750 and 1850, those stones became a major obstacle to farmers trying to cultivate the land. Farmers moved the stones to the edge of their fields, piling them along their fence lines. As more stones built up, they formed walls that served as a border or fence.
The work of clearing fields and building the walls were not done by landowners alone. Across New England, the work was also performed by laborers, indentured servants, enslaved people, prisoners and others.
“Stones show up on the surface, and that is a problem if you are trying to have a field,” Thorson said.
Jane Adler, a Framingham resident who frequently hikes in Wayland, said the walls are hard to miss.
“Oh they’re everywhere,” Adler said while hiking with her dog on the Mainstone Farm Trailhead.
Adler said preserving the walls allows people to encounter history physically rather than just reading about it in books.
“It’s the history of our country, and that’s how people not just learn about it but get to experience it,” she said.
As Wayland shifted from an agricultural community to a suburban one in the late 19th century, its relationship with the stone walls changed.
Suburban development has resulted in old walls being cut, moved, rebuilt or removed to make way for modern infrastructure, such as driveways. But residents have built replicas to try and recreate the rustic aesthetic the walls brought.
“Basically, there’s a net loss during suburbanization,” Thorson said. “But then there’s also a gain because people like…to emulate the past and rebuild them.”
Wayland has regulations intended to preserve some of its historic landscape.
Planning Board Chair Anette Lewis said the town’s Scenic Roads bylaw regulates the removal of stone walls and trees within the public right of way along designated scenic roads. If a property owner wants to remove stones on their property, they must apply to the Planning Board and go through a public hearing process.
The town modeled its law after a 1973 state law that allowed communities to establish protection for scenic roads. Lewis said Wayland created its own bylaws shortly after with a goal of maintaining and protecting the town’s “rural, natural, historic, and scenic character.”
For Lewis, these walls contribute to a distinct New England landscape while also serving as a reminder of what Wayland once looked like.
“Even though we have lots of trees now, we didn’t have lots of trees when those walls were put in,” Lewis said. “It’s sort of a New England feel.”
Preserving stone walls is more than just maintaining their appearance. The walls also provide habitat and shelter for wildlife and have become a part of the local ecosystem.
Thorson described the walls as “outdoor antiques” that allow people to encounter Wayland’s agricultural history without entering a museum.
Looking closely at the stone, lichen, moss and vegetation growing around the walls can connect people to both the region’s “historic agricultural roots” and the earth beneath them, Thorson said.
“I just want them to be appreciative of the earth that they live on,” he said.
This story is part of a partnership between the Wayland Post and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom program.
