Opening of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts

In 1930, Ruth Graves Wakefield and her husband Kenneth purchased and opened the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, a Cape Cod–style former toll house situated on the road between Boston and New Bedford.[3][10] Though the exact opening day is not documented, the year 1930 marks the establishment of the restaurant that would become the birthplace of the chocolate chip cookie.

Wakefield served as the inn’s chef, drawing on her training as a dietitian and home economics educator to design menus and develop recipes that emphasized quality ingredients and New England traditions.[3][10] The Toll House Inn quickly built a reputation for excellent food and hospitality, attracting travelers, local residents, and eventually celebrities.

Historically, the opening of the Toll House Inn is significant because it provided the professional kitchen and steady stream of diners that allowed Wakefield to experiment with desserts and refine what would become the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie, the earliest documented chocolate chip cookie.[3][10] Her role as co‑owner and head cook exemplified how women could leverage domestic expertise into successful entrepreneurship in the interwar period.

In an era when women rarely controlled prominent businesses, Wakefield’s leadership at the Toll House Inn helped normalize women’s authority in professional kitchens and restaurant management. The inn’s opening set in motion a chain of events—from recipe innovation to corporate licensing—that permanently changed commercial chocolate marketing and home baking worldwide.