Laconia Car Company has a description in Wikipedia. It says it manufactured railway cars in Laconia from 1848 to 1928. It occupied seven acres of downtown Laconia and employed as many as 500 people.
1914 was the last year of profitable operation for the company. It had been focused on electric trolley cars and became unprofitable when trolley riders switched over to automobiles like the Ford Model T, 1908-1927, the car for every man, a car that most people could actually buy.
"Employment increased to a thousand workers by 1912, but focus on electric railway cars made the company uncompetitive for conventional railway vehicles as electric railway riders began using automobiles, and 1914 was the last year of profitable operation for the company."
"Production shifted to plywood motorboats before the company closed in 1928." When a company, 1848 to 1928, switches from railroad cars and then to electric trolley cars and then to baggage and mail cars and then to plywood motorboats ...... it is not a happy future and likely to close ..... and close, it did in 1928.
Is there an historical sign in Laconia, somewhere, on the Laconia Car Company, 1848-1928, a state historical sign similar to the Belknap College sign, 1963-1973, that's in Center Harbor?
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... down and out, liv'n that Walmart side of the lake!
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