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History of Toll House (from VeryBestBaking.com) Back in 1930, Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield purchased a Cape Cod-style toll house located halfway between Boston and New Bedford, on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts. Originally constructed in 1709, the house served as a haven for road-weary travelers. Here, passengers paid toll, changed horses and ate much-welcomed home-cooked meals. It was also here, over 200 years later, that the Wakefields decided to open a lodge, calling it the Toll House Inn. In keeping with the tradition of creating delicious homemade meals, Ruth baked for guests who stayed at the Toll House Inn. As she improved upon traditional colonial recipes, Ruth's incredible desserts began attracting people from all over New England. One day, while preparing a batch of butter drop do cookies, a favorite recipe dating back to colonial days, Ruth cut a bar of chocolate into tiny bits and added them to her dough, expecting them to melt. Instead, the chocolate held its shape and softened to a delicately creamy texture. The resulting creation became very popular at the Inn. Soon, Ruth's recipe was published in a Boston newspaper, as well as other papers in the New England area. Regional sales of chocolate bars skyrocketed. Ruth eventually approached Nestlé and together, they reached an agreement that allowed them to print what would become the Toll House Cookie recipe on the wrapper of Nestlés semi-sweet chocolate bar. Part of this agreement included supplying Ruth with all of the chocolate she could use to make her delicious cookies for the rest of her life. As the popularity of the Toll House cookie continued to grow, Nestlé looked for ways to make it easier for people to bake. Soon, they began scoring the semi-sweet chocolate bar, and packaged it with a special chopper for easily cutting it into small morsels. Shortly after, in 1939, they began offering tiny pieces of chocolate in convenient, ready-to-use packages and that is how the first chocolate chips were introduced.