Spotlight on Collections: 1908 Folger & Drummond Beach Wagon

Area residents wanting to go to the beach have a few choices. They can take their cars and fight summer traffic or take the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MVRTA) bus. Before cars and buses they could take the Beach Wagon, made by Folger and Drummond carriage makers of Amesbury circa 1908.

“Beach wagon was a term found along the Atlantic coast, particularly in New England, for wagons used for beach or countryside trips,” Amesbury Carriage Museum (ACM) Executive Director Kelly Daniell said. “This particular beach wagon has a rubber rug on its floor—not uncommon in the time—that looks remarkably like a floor mat for a car that you might buy today, and it served the same purpose of protecting the floor from mud and debris.”

Folger & Drummond Beach Wagon 1908. (Amesbury Carriage Museum collection.)

The manufacturer, Folger and Drummond, was in business from 1888 until 1914, operating out of the five-story brick factory that once dominated the skyline of Amesbury’s Lower Millyard. David J. Folger was a major player in the Amesbury carriage manufacturing industry. When he was 16 he started working as a shoemaker before becoming an apprentice to a carriage trimmer in Fall River. In 1862, he enlisted and fought in many battles throughout the Civil War, even being taken prisoner twice and escaping. He was mustered out in 1865, and returned to West Amesbury, now known as Merrimac. In 1887, he joined with James Drummond and built a new, larger factory near the Boston & Maine station, called Folger & Drummond Carriages and Sleighs. It was reported in newspapers that D.J. Drummond’s Carriage business “sold carriages as fast as they could be built.”

Folger & Drummond showed their line of carriages and sleighs at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was at that Exposition that it was said that David Folger reassured potential customers that there was no need to be “concerned by the new, sure-to-fail invention: the horseless carriage.” He was wrong, but next time you head to the beach picture yourself going in a 1908 Folger & Drummond Beach Wagon instead of taking your car or the MVRTA bus.

“The Beach Wagon will make an appearance at the Chamber of Commerce Block Party,” Daniell said, “on Thursday, June 27 [2024].”

The IHC does not have regular visiting hours during the winter season, but has regularly scheduled programs and events.