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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — A restaurant and onetime inn built along a stagecoach route in 1784 has closed permanently, another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, and officials say it's been approved for demolition.
The Sun Chronicle reports that the Lafayette House, on what's now Route 1 in Foxborough and just down the road from Gillette Stadium, has been cleared for the wrecking ball after the town's historical commission found little of the original building that hadn't been altered over the centuries.
Commission chair Mark Ferencik said that the fine dining restaurant had been shuttered since the pandemic began and that its owners had requested permission to raze it.
The eatery was established by Aaron Everett and originally was known as the Everett Inn. It was renamed the Lafayette House in tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military officer who fought in the American Revolution.
Lafayette was said to have spent the night on his way back to New York in 1825 after laying the cornerstone for a monument in Boston to the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was waged in 1775.
Benjamin Franklin and George Washington are believed to have been among the dignitaries who dined at or slept at the inn.
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