The Sandwich Coach

     The old stage coach, owned by the Town of Sandwich, was built in 1850 per order of Curtis S. Coe for the Senter House in Center Harbor. (The hotel, on the site of the Nichols Memorial Library, burned in 1887). L. Downing and Sons in Concord, NH built the coach which was known as Concord Coach No. XVI, a nine passenger, city-style, wooden boot, mail coach. Major Lewis Downing visited Center Harbor in 1900 to inspect the "Senter House Coach" in its 50th year, declaring "with a few general repairs it will stand the racket for many years to come...".

   The coach was owned in 1914 by Dennison R. Slade, a Sandwich Squam Lake gentleman farmer, who offered it to Center Harbor by warrant article XXIII  "to be properly housed and kept as an old relic of the town". The article was tabled and the coach given to Sandwich before D. R. Slade's death on June 17,1914.

    The Sandwich Reporter on October 7 and 21, 1915 reported that at the Sandwich Grange Fair Parade "the old stage coach... decorated, drew its share of attention and applause, winning first prize. It was a striking feature in the parade." For much of the 1920s and 30s, the coach was featured at a small museum at Robert's Pinnacle Park Zoo until the 1938 hurricane "did it all in". On September 22, 1939 "We hauled back to Sandwich....the old stage coach..." and it was in the 1939 Sandwich Fair parade.

   A decision to repair the coach, in sad shape, was made after the 1939 Fair, with a goal of being featured in the 1941 parade. Edwin G. Burgum, son of a decorator of Concord coaches, oversaw the restoration. The Sandwich Fair Association paid the cost. The Sandwich Coach coach is featured every year in the Sandwich Fair Parade.