1873 Weirs Landing Information

A description of Weirs Beach from the Bachelder 1874-1876 guidebook

At Weir’s Station passengers change for Wolfboro’, Centre Harbor, and Conway. Within the past year a Methodist camp-meeting ground has been dedicated in a delightful grove adjoining the station, which bids fair to increase the popularity of this charming spot. Several commodious buildings have already been erected: lots for cottages have been secured on a site commanding a magnificent view of the lake, with fine boat and railroad accommodations. Those who desire to visit Wolfboro’, Centre Harbor, or Conway will find the commodious little steamer Lady of the Lake awaiting them at the landing. Arrangements have been made to run the boat from Wolfboro’ to Weir’s, and vice versa, to accommodate tourists to and from the Franconia Mountains. The distance to Wolfboro’ is twenty miles, and to Centre Harbor but half that, although the latter route seems to combine all the beauties of the lake. When the steamer leaves the wharf, the jutting points of the adjacent islands would seem to bar our progress; but, as it speeds its way, the view unfolds, the channel opens; and we wind our pleasant course among the islands, at times so near that the overhanging branches almost sweep the boat. The lake is from twenty-five to thirty miles long, and varies from one to eight miles wide. It contains about sixty-nine square miles, and nearly three hundred islands, on many of which are fine farms, and several are used for grazing. Its surface is 472 feet above the level of the sea. The numerous islands which dot its bosom, the beautiful hills which hem it in, and its many points and inlets, combine to make Winnepesaukee one of the most pleasing inland resorts in the country. The sedative influence and peculiar quiet of the scene, during the charming days of an Indian summer, with the bright tints of an autumnal foliage, graduating to the soft haze of the mountain blue, reflected in its waters, is most wonderful. At Centre House or Wolfboro’ for days and weeks the tourist lingers, forgetting, among the quiet beauties of nature, the cares of a business-life. The excursion to Centre Harbor also forms one of the most delightful day-trips from Boston. Leaving the city at 8 o’clock in the morning, via the Boston, Concord, and Montreal R.R. and steamer “Lady of the Lake,” the visitor will have an hour for dinner at Centre Harbor, returning by the steamer “Mount Washington,” and Boston and Maine Railroad, to Boston the same evening, thus passing throughout the cities of Lowell, Nashua, Manchester, Concord, Dover, Haverhill, and Lawrence, with the intervening towns, and traversing the entire length and breath of Lake Winnepesaukee, by both routes, in a single day.

It would be easy to introduce pages of description from the pens of visitors; but all are embodied in the following quotation from that eminent writer, EDWARD EVERETT.

“I have been something of a traveller in our own country, — though for less than I could wish, — and in Europe have seen all that is most attractive, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Golden Horn of Constantinople, from the summit of Hartz Mountains to the Fountain of Vaucluse; but my eye has yet to rest on a lovelier scene than that which smiles around you as you sail from Weir’s Landing to Centre Harbor.”

From Weir’s Landing the train continues northward past Meredith, a pleasant village…