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Service Stations

Currently there is only one service station in Weirs Beach, Gulbicki’s. They do a great job.

NAME OF STATION
TELEPHONE
ADDRESS
Gulbicki’s Towing & Auto Repair603-366-54021193 Weirs Boulevard

HISTORY OF SERVICE STATIONS

Probably Weirs Beach’s first “service station”, the Lakeside Garage was located on the north end of Lakeside Avenue, where the concrete patio of the the Big House is now. Built in the 1910s, it was converted to several different businesses over the years. In the 1940’s, it was a roller skating rink, the Weirs Roller Way. In the 1950’s, it was the Knotty Pine Grill (a restaurant). In the 1960’s, it was a dance club known as Teen Haven. In the early 1970’s, it was the Weirs Beach Playhouse by night, and a bike rental shop by day. In 1974, it became the nightclub “Nashville North”. The country music nightclub opened for the 1974 season on May 11, and had a capacity of 405 persons. This was the final use of the building, as it burned down near the end of its twelfth season of operations, on October 3, 1985.

The Lakeside Garage not only serviced autos, it was also a convenience store. According to a 1921 Laconia Democrat article, G. Henry Davis, who had managed the nearby Tarlson’s store for 20 years, entered business for himself at the new garage. He was the local agent for S.S. Pierce Co. of Boston, and offered a full line of package groceries, canned goods, fruits, vegetables, candy and cigars. Could that be him in the white shirt and tie standing at the door to his shop? The sign over his head cannot be read, but the first sign on the left reads “Fancy Groceries”.

Lakeside Garage and Lakeside House ads, 1923. The garage was “The Automobilist’s Hotel”, while the hotel was “The Place to Stop”. This was an alluring combination for wealthy families arriving from the city. They could park their large town cars inside the garage during their stay, while above the garage, twelve rooms were available to house their chauffeurs. 

Another early garage was the Blue Sign garage. The garage was located at the junction of US Route 3 (Weirs Boulevard) and Route 11B (Endicott Street East). There is now a parking lot at this corner location. A September 4, 1929 article noted, “All traffic over the leading central New Hampshire boulevard that is going to and from the White Mountains comes into the service radius of this garage…An expert staff of mechanics can be found at the Blue Sign Garage, ready to take care of all automobile difficulties.” On the back side of the garage’s business card, an interesting map of the roads in 1920 appears. For a photo gallery of other early gas and/or service stations in Weirs Beach, click here.

Blue Sign Garage business card

Cruising down Lakeside Avenue in the 1920s.

1920 Road Map of NH

Roads of the time were made of macadam, a method of constructing roads of small stones, with stone dust to fill in the gaps between the stones, and a tar coating on the top. Whilst this method worked reasonably well in more temperate climates, it was quite a problem for the roads to make it through the typical New England winter. A February, 1919 article in the Laconia Democrat noted that the local roads were “said to be in the worst condition ever known…The macadam roads which usually come out good in the spring are badly heaved and cracked, and it will require considerable expense to get them into shape for summer travel. The gravel and clay roads on the main route are regular quagmires of mud, and the trucks and heavy cars which have been through them have left these pieces of highway in bad shape.”

Auto road map of New Hampshire, 1924