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| This 130-year-old poster (or perhaps a broadside) publicizes horse races, games, competitions, and animal shows at a two- day agricultural far being held on the grounds of Windham Hill Driving Park. COURTESY OF WINDHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY |
The Windham Hill neighborhood is much quieter today than in earlier times when race day attracted hundreds of spectators to the “driving park,” located near the intersection of Park and Pope Roads. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term driving park referred to a “racetrack used for harness racing.”
“My grandfather, Robert “Dag” Timmons, used to race his horses there,” said longtime resident Roger Timmons, “…a long time ago a lady showed me a race card from way back. My grandfather’s name and the name of his horse was on it. (I was surprised) to see how much they could win back then…it was pretty good money.”
Timmons remembers seeing the outline of the oval track on Windham Hill around
1950, long after it had closed, “You could see where it used to be; the ground
was different.”
He said he wasn’t around when grandfather raced on Windham Hill, but driving parks continued to be popular into the 1950s in the nearby communities of Gorham, Cumberland and Cornish, where his grandfather continued to race “right up to the time he died” in 1958.
Timmons lived briefly with his grandparents on the big farm on Swett Road
(often referred to at that time as the Dag Timmons Road) and in the 1940s
observed his grandad training his race horses.
“He’d have them jogging in a big circle in the farmyard, and he’d harness them up and ride the sulky down Swett Road (toward Route 202), turn right onto Town Farm Road, another right onto Pope Road all the way down to Chute (Road) where he’d join up with Swett Road again. His little dog, Smokey, would run all the way with him under the sulky seat.”
The workouts were designed to strengthen the horses for racing. In the early days of harness racing the horse’s owner was both the trainer and driver.
Timmons said he loved helping his grandad with the standardbreds, and still
remembers their names: Gracious Lee, Goldie Brewer, and Goldie’s offspring,
Penny Lee.
Asked if he had seen evidence of a grandstand that might have stood on the
Windham Hill site, Timmons said no, but other parks did have one, and its
likely Windham had one too because “…they’d need the height” to overlook what
seemed to be a half-mile oval track.
Evidence of the park’s very early years will soon be on display at the Windham Historical Society’s Village Green, a re-creation of an 1890s public square now nearing completion behind the Society’s brick museum at Windham Center.
A tattered and yellowed poster announcing an upcoming agricultural fair at the Windham Hill Driving Park in 1892 describes a two-day event that will feature horse races, oxen and draft horse trials of strength, trotting (featuring a $40 purse) and ladies’ competition for speed in harnessing horses.
Tax records dating from the turn of the century show the owner of Windham Hill Driving Park to be Charles M. Stuart, who paid a total of $20.32 on real estate and personal property that included his homestead and the park valued at $1,035.
In the 19th century, harness racing attracted spectators from all walks of life. In some communities the event was so popular that businesses closed for the day. It is not known if that was the case in Windham.
With the advent of the automobile in the early 1900s, many driving parks throughout New England were transformed into auto racetracks. Not so in Windham however, many longtimers remember the Windham Hill Driving Park turning into a lovers’ lane in the 1930s.
The next time you’re jogging or driving on the hill, listen carefully for echoes from the last two centuries; “Heeeeeere they come!” <
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