The Westbrook Historical Society

PROGRAMS 2017 - 2018

Programs are presented at 1:30 o'clock on the 1st Wednesday of each month (unless otherwise noted), with the exception of June, July and August. Everyone is welcome, there is no charge.
LOCATION: 426 BRIDGE STREET - Parking in front of building or on right side, by Society entrance.

*****NOTE: If school is cancelled, the Historical Society meeting is cancelled *****

September 6, 2017 - Historical Walking Trails and What Goes Into Creating Them. Julie Larry from Greater Portland Landmarks, will speak on the planning, funding, and creation of a Historical walking tour.

Photo from Internet

Riverton Trolley Park entrance at Bridge's Bridge

October 4, 2017 - Postcards from the Edge. This slide show will highlight Riverton Trolley Park, established in 1896 and considered one of the area's premier attractions. It sits on Forest Avenue, right on the edge of Westbrook.

November 1, 2017 - Antidotes and Historical Snippets of Westbrook, as told by Bob Lowell, a long time reporter for Keep Me Current and The American Journal. Bob is full of local trivia so bring your questions regarding Westbrook's past.

December 6, 2017- Westbrook Housing Authority: what is it, what does it do? Join us for this program and learn its responsibilities.

January 3, 2018 - History of The Stagecoach Trail will be presented by Terry Christy. A regular stage coach stop was at A. D. Woodbury's on Bridgton Road, the stage coach route from Portland to N.H.

DUCK POND

February 7, 2018 Saccarappa Cemetery is Westbrook's oldest community burial grounds and is said to "have more Babbs than slabs"! Suzan Roberts Norton will present some of her research on Saccarappa's history and its people. Names found here include Trickey, Conant, Johnson, Quinby, Hatch, Cloudman, Cutter, Sproul, Field, Edwards, Haskell, Swett, Roberts, and, of course, Babb!.

March 7, 2018 - Saccarappa Cemetery - program was cancelled in February; rescheduled for March

See information listed for February (above)

The Cumberand-Oxford Canal at Longfellow Street

April 4, 2018 - Studing the Cumberland-Oxford Canal. Following a project by Westbrook Middle School students* , one of their teachers will present this program on what they learned, and what they accomplished.

[ * See Activities Page for more information on the school project]

May 2, 2018 - Remembering Westbrook of Old , photographic presention of the city as it once was. Presented by Westbrook Historical Society President, and Mayor, Mike Sanphy.

June 6, 2018 - Annual meeting - No Program

*****************************************************************************

2016 - 2017 Programs : Home, Business & Schools; Hidden History in Quilts; Knowlton Machine Shop; WW I Home Front; Taste and Toast to Westbrook; Jack Dawson, 50 Years in Football; Sebago's Steamboats; Gambo Hills; Galveston-Westbrook Connection

2015 - 2016 Programs: The Downtown Art Collective, History of the Clarke Farm, Fort Province Archeology Dig

2014 - 2015 Programs: Bartlett Adams, gravestone engraver; The Importance of Family Stories; The S.A.L.T. Institute;Civil War Veterans at Evergreen Cemetery; Recycling Program; Greater Portland's Irish Heritage; Genetic Genealogy; 24 Hours in the Fire Department; Highland Lake Grange

2013 - 2014 Programs: Tour of Evergreen Cemetery; Development of Halidon Tax-Free Colony; Westbrook's Bicentennial; History Blog work-shop; Maine's Early Female Physicians; Maine Forest Fires of 1947; Author presentation: "MAINE - The Wilder Part of New England"; Edward L. Mayo, Artist; Dowsing for Graves

2012-2013 Programs: Portland Fire of 1866; Swimming the English Channel; Civil War Medicine; History of Maine Barns; Cumberland & Oxford Canal; Riverton Trolley Park; Westbrook's Quaker Artist; Deering; Remembering Westbrook's Veterans

2011-2012 Programs: Story of 1951 Little League Champs; A Photographic Show of Westbrook; Using Deeds in Genealogy; Remembering the Civil War; Joys of Collecting Ephemera; Meet the Author, Mary Morton Cowan; Appraisal Day; The Quakers in Maine

2010-2011 Programs: Remembering Westbrook: People of the Paper City, Story of the New England Barn, WW II Diary of Philip LaViolet, The Roberts family of Saco Street, 1866 Portland Fire, Antique Post Cards, From the Hedgrows of Normandy

2009-2010 Programs: Westbrook Then & Now Part III, Collecting is Fun, Over a Cardboard Sea entertainers, Treasure Hunting, Halidon Tax Colony, Halifax Disaster, Girl of the Past, History of Playing
the Spoons, Bones & Saw, Westbrook Immigrants: Peters, Trickey, Kinmond, Roy, Rocheleau families, Maritime History of Portland.

2008-2009 Programs: Westbrook Then & Now Part II, Collecting Old Bottles, Maine Military Museum, Underground Railroad Quilt, Plight of Irish Longshoremen, S.A.L.T., Westbrook Pewter, Tom Nadeau's Artwork, 3rd Annual Westbrook Immigrants: Kourapis, Cairns, Fournier & LaViolette families.

2007-2008 Programs:Remembering Rudy Vallée, Gilding on Glass, Remembering Our Veterans, The Haskell Silk Mill, Westbrook Then & Now, Early American Folk Remedies, Exploring our Collection, 2nd Annual Westbrook Immigrants: The Woroneka, Zaharis, Conant and Guimond families.

2006 - 2007 Programs: History of Dowsing, Antique Bicycles, Just Black & White Photographs, Al
Hawkes & Local Bluegrass Music, Placing Your Home on the National Register, Portland Trails in Westbrook, Maine Irish History, Northeast Historic Films, Westbrook Immigrants: The Turgeon,
Gerhardts, Keating, Jensen & Rathgeb families.