The Weirs Cafe
The Weirs Cafe was built in 1885, when it was attached to the second, 1880-1892 train station. In 1893, the train station was replaced by extending the Weirs Cafe to the boardwalk, where it met the 300′ canopy over the boardwalk at a right angle. The Cafe lasted for 54 years, before it burned on December 22, 1939. (The second photo below dates circa 1927. It shows the gas dock of Irwin’s Winnipesaukee Gardens in the foreground.)
Below, the Weirs Cafe, circa 1897. On the roof of the train canopy is lettered the words “Concord Montreal Railroad”.
An 1893 cabinet card showing the Weirs Cafe attached to the third, 1893 train station, the Lady of the Lake steamship, and a couple standing on the boardwalk. The Lady was retired at the end of the 1893 season. The Spindle Point lighthouse, built in 1892, can be seen dimly in the background.
Below, a Moulton photo showing the Weirs Cafe attached to the earlier, 1880-1892 railroad station. Also seen is a naked, exposed Endicott Rock, on left, before it was enclosed in a protective granite memorial in 1892. An 1889 engraving, following, shows a similar scene, as well as a floating house!
Below, a photo of the Weirs Cafe under construction in 1885, with the Lady of the Lake docked at its wharf, and laborers standing on the peak of the Cafe roof, which was still being framed in.
Advertisement from the 1890 NHVA reunion program.
