The history of Stage Stop Candy goes way beyond a long time love for candy! For 40 years we have been serving up our sweet treats to our local community, but recently donated a huge piece of our identity and history out of state to Concord, New Hampshire!
The famous stagecoach that was displayed on our lawn in front of the store during the 80’s has been donated by us after sitting in storage for years. The stagecoach's new home is at the Abbot-Downing Historical Society where it can be restored to its former beauty.
This staple piece of ours was loved by many people of all ages. From acting as a jungle-gym for kids all over Dennis Port to a destination for photographs, the stagecoach was always a huge hit and attraction to our business.
The Stage Stop Candy Stage Coach is an Eastern Style Hotel Coach and can be distinguished from a “mail coach” by the folding French style windows. It is a middle size passenger coach with nine seats but could actually fit thirteen. This particular stage coach was most likely used by a hotel to pick up passengers from the train station and take them to the hotel that owned it. Another common use for a stage coach of this nature is frequent local excursions that were particularly popular in cities and resort areas such as Cape Cod and the White Mountains.
The first Concord coaches were built by Lewis Downing and J. Stephens Abbot in Concord, New Hampshire in 1826-27. To check out more about the Abbot-Downing Historical Society, check out their website at www.concordcoach.org. After this initial success they formed a partnership and went into production in 1828. Together they built their last coach in 1903 and remained popular with the resort hotels for decades after that as a novelty.
History and tradition are a large part of our core values and have played a significant role in how far we have come since our original start in 1982. Stage Stop itself is located in the historic Johnathan P. Edwards house in the seaport village of Dennis Port, Massachusetts.
A few more examples of donations that Stage Stop is proud to have been a part of include Relay For Life where we have donated candy used for their Gingerbread House Fundraiser annually since 2019. Stage Stop also donates the candy for the Halloween Hustle Run organized by the Dennis Police Department, and some of the prizes for the youth summer reading program for the Dennis Public library. Some more examples of charities that we have regularly partnered with include Dennis Conservation Land Trust, Witches on the Water, A Baby Center, St. Pius X Parish, Cape Cod Veterans Inc., First Congregational Church, REACH beyond domestic violence, and Cape Cod Cares for the Troops.
Stage Stop Candy prides itself on giving back to the community that so graciously supports us back. Community is important for many reasons and we are forever grateful and appreciative to be a part of the local family that Cape Cod embodies.
