Truth: Concord’s history ran off while we slept.
Now folks growl when they speak of the railroad station. What’s left of the Dew Drop Inn? A wooden peg and a brick.
How about the Tenney Chimes? Silence.
The Italian garden on North Main? A gas station. Rumford Coffee House? A union hall.
Gone.
You have one to add? Tell me.
And I’ll tell you another, one that’s six weeks shy of departure.
Concord’s historic claim to fame was a factory on Main Street, The Abbot-Downing Company, in all its generations. J. Stephens Abbot and Lewis Downing and their huge manufacturing yards built the famed stagecoach – the “Concord Coach” – which opened the American West and then circled the globe.
They also built horse-drawn vehicles, all shapes and sizes, and, finally, motor cars and trucks, even fire engines.
Built them by the thousands, and all marked “Concord.”
In Concord now, mostly they’re all gone. We do have seven Concord Coaches in town, thanks to history-minded neighbors, and a Concord fire engine,(one of the two left in the world).
The folks at the Abbot-Downing Historical Society keep two coaches safe, preserved in company with sleighs and wagons and carriages they “think were made here,” but don’t carry the Abbot-Downing “brand.”
They cherish the vehicles and the history and share them every chance they get, in their barn, on our city streets, etc.
Now chance has come to Concord, hoping we’ll take it. A New Hampshire gentleman who collected seven Concord-made vehicles, all marked “Abbot-Downing,” has decided it is time to sell them all – as one lot.
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to bring our history home.
The gentleman prefers that the Concord pieces return home. He has offered them at a “special price,” $100,000 for the lot of six, another $75,000 for the rare seventh, but his offer only holds until Sept. 1.
Why? A carriage museum in the Midwest wants them all and is standing by, anxious, with checkbook in hand.
So what are we doing to do?
Nothing, and then growl about our lost history? Or are we going to pitch in, big and little purses – and grab the chance we have been given to save the most extraordinary collection ever assembled at the single factory which made our city unique.
During the first four days after hearing about the opportunity, $13,000 primed the well. That left six weeks and $187,000 to go to save the one piece of our Concord history that made a global difference.
A little more than three weeks now before it is lost forever.
Gone.
Your tax-deductible contributions may be sent to the Abbot-Downing Historical Society, PO Box 4077, Concord, NH 03302-4077.
Updates will be posted on the society’s website throughout the process at concordcoach.org.
