| Description | A nine passenger, Eastern-style Concord road coach. Originally the coach’s body was painted red and its carriage yellow, but the coach has been over painted with the exception of the door scenes. Its original center "jump seat" is missing, (a "jump seat" is an adjustable seat that, when it is not in use, can be hidden from view.) The two slat type seats on top of coach were added at a later date. Additional features included russet leather finish, damask head and fringe, damask-lined leather curtains and a leather driver's apron. |
| Interpretation | Interpretation Concord coaches were used as hotel coaches, road coaches, mail coaches, and occasionally for carrying excursion and sightseeing parties. Concord coaches intended for use as hotel coaches were built slightly smaller than the other types. Limited to local transit routes within cities, hotel coaches were used to deliver railroad passengers to their hotels. A road coach was essentially a stagecoach that traveled between cities delivering mail, cargo, and passengers. Sturdily built for rapid travel over long distances, the road coach was designed for speed not comfort. This Concord road coach was used on three different stage lines during its operational life: utilized as a hotel coach in St. Albans, Vermont; and as a road coach in Waterbury-Hardwick, Vermont; and Morrisville-Stowe, Vermont. Abbot, Downing, and Company, of Concord, New Hampshire built the original Concord coaches. The company referred to them as Mail coaches. Mail coaches, designed for postal delivery, quickly became preferred over road coaches by commuters because of their early departure schedule. J. Stephens Abbot and Lewis Downing built the very first coach of this type in July 1827. Production continued until early into the twentieth century. The Concord coach was generally built to provide room for six, nine, or twelve passengers. This does not include passengers who rode on top of the roof. Company records reveal that some four-passenger and sixteen-passenger sizes were also built between 1858 and 1864. Passengers were seated on two transverse, facing seats - the usual coach fashion, as well as on one or two additional benches between the fixed seats, and one or more roof-seats. The carriage had space for a large amount of baggage. There were racks on top, another at the rear, and space in the front trunk for baggage. These coaches were painted in bright colors and then highly decorated with painted scrollwork, oil paintings, ornate lettering, and gold leaf. The most common color for a road coach was a red body on a pale yellow carriage. Hotel coaches were painted in a wide variety of colors that included green, red, orange, white, blue, yellow, olive, black, and maroon. |
