At one time there was a large barn behind the Princeton Public Library, which was torn down by Harold Mason, and it once was owned by P. C. Doolittle; sometimes contained as many as thirty horses.
Prentice C. Doolittle, familiarly known as P. C., a horse lover and proprietor of the Princeton Stage Lines, bought horses by the carload for trading purposes to equip his coaches and baggage wagons running from the Princeton train depots to the many hotels in town; Summit House, Mountain House, Grand View House, Wachusett House, Prospect House, Mount Pleasant House, Howard House, Vacation Rest, to mention some of the more important.
Before the road from Hubbardston Road to the Allen Estate was cut through – called Allen Hill Rd., this writer as a girl, on what is now the Wilman place (105 Merriam Road), saw his six-horse tally-hos sweep at a gallop down the hill and across the flat to gain momentum from the steep slope now known as Fay’s hill, on their way to the top of Mt. Wachusett.
How Mr. Doolittle could mange a six-in-hand or a four-in-hand after he lost a finger in his windmill has caused great wonder to many people who saw him do it.
The Doolittle yard (19 Mountain Road) where horses were constantly changed after the grueling drag of heavy coaches up the steep Princeton hills might have reminded one of early English tavern yards where similar activities went on.
More about these stagecoaches will appear at a later time.
Miss Ethel Mirick
This was copied from the Princeton News, Vol. I, No. 7, dated September 1, 1952, and clarified and updated August 2015 by the PHS.