Back in the days, my father, Edward Duhamel Owned and operated "The Willows" restaurant, a seasonal summer business. In those early days many people would come right into the kitchen of the restaurant wanting only our famous clam fritters. You can only imagine what a nuisance it was to have these "take-out" customers lining up for clam fritters while we were trying to operate our dining room. So...Dad decided to build a little shack, holding two small deep-fryers for the fritters, one grill and an old gas stove to cook the chowder on. We opened for business in the summer of 1950.
In 1952, I left to serve in the Korean War, so the restaurant closed its doors but only temporarily. It reopened in the summer of 1954 with a very limited menu under the name "the Car Hop". We employed a couple of young girls who went out to the cars and took orders from the patrons.
About that time we began to think about a proper name for the “Car Hop". My brother and I had a riding stable and we would bring our horses down to the HOP and hitch them up and give them each an ice cream cone. Believe me every horse loves his ice cream! Because of this "hitching" of our horses to the post, my mother, Harriet Duhamel, said, "why don't you call it ’The Hitching Post'?" We took my mother's advice and the name has stuck to this day. As the years went by and our business grew, we found ourselves faced with two choices: build a new building because we were no longer able to fulfill the business needs in such a small place, or to cease the operation entirely.
So, in 1964 we built a new building and added more items to the menu. With each passing year business just seemed to grow and grow. So again in 1982, to keep up with customer demand, we added a dining room, expanded our kitchen, and added public restrooms. As the years continued to pass, we kept up with the demand and continued to expand, improve our menu, tasting and rejecting the new food ideas as necessary.
One thing is for sure, over the years we kept the quality of our food and our service to the highest of standards; always seeking any way for “The Hitching Post” to avoid compromising these two important factors.
Today, the running of this family business has been passed to my children, Jerry Duhamel, Jr. and Tammy Duhamel-McLellan. They will keep up the tradition of the famous Hitching Post chowder and fritters and whatever other food is served in the years to come.
Jerry Duhamel, Sr. July 20, 1932 - July 9, 2013
original print location: Charlestown Chamber of Commerce, "The Chamber Beacon"