Downing & Son Concord-style mail coach

L. S. Downing & Son · 1851-1890s

A fully restored 1851 Concord-style mail coach, this vehicle carried mail between White River Junction and the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont. An inscription inside the door-"Chet Adams, No. 87 1851, Emerson Milling on side"-refers to Chet Adams, a builder for Lewis Downing. Lewis S. Downing and partner J. Stephen Abbott of Concord, New Hampshire, built the Concord coaches. The coaches were built in six, nine, and twelve-passenger sizes (not counting passengers who rode on the roof when the coach was full). The mail was typically carried in a space under the driver's seat; baggage rode on the top rack or in the rear compartment. Concord-style mail coaches were used in the United States well into the early 1900s.