Toll House Inn

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Toll House Inn of Whitman, Massachusetts, was established in 1930 by Kenneth and Ruth Graves Wakefield. The original toll house had been built in 1709 and had a rich history of providing a night's solace to weary travelers. Located on what is now Route 18 about halfway between Boston and New Bedford, Massachusetts, it was a place where passengers historically paid a toll, changed horses and ate much-welcomed home-cooked meals.

The Wakefields took it upon themselves to uphold the lodge's tradition. Ruth cooked all the food served and soon gained local fame for her desserts. In 1937, while adapting her butter drop dough cookie recipe, Ms. Wakefield became the inventor of the first chocolate chip cookie using a bar of semi-sweet chocolate made by the Nestlé company. She thought that the chopped up chocolate bar would melt and blend into the dough as it cooked, however the pieces, while becoming soft, retained their shape. The new dessert soon became very popular.

Ruth contacted Nestlé and they struck a deal: The company would print her recipe on the cover of all their semi-sweet chocolate bars, and she would get a lifetime supply of chocolate. Nestlé began marketing chocolate chips to be used especially for cookies. Ruth wrote a cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, in 1940.

Ruth died in 1977, and the Toll House Inn burned down New Year's Eve 1984, but her cookie lives on. Although there are many manufacturers of chocolate chips today, the agreement to publish the recipe of Ruth Graves Wakefield on the back of each package of Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies is still honored as of 2008.