The Westbrook Historical Society

PROGRAMS 2018 - 2019

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 5, 2018 - The End of WWI and Armistice Day
Professor Donald Zillman will present a program about the ending of WWI and our tradition of celebrating Armistice Day. Prof. Zillman is a faulty member at the University of Maine School of Law. His teaching and scholarship have concentrated on energy, environmental and natural resources law, and the constitutional governance of the military.

WWI WW I soldiers from Westbrook

The Scates Building, now the site of CVS

October 3, 2018 -.Henry Saunders, a vice chairman of the Westbrook Urban Renewal Authority oF fhE 1960s and 1970s, will speak on the Authority's vision for revitalizing downtown Westbrook at that time. He is the last surviving member of the WURA.

November 7, 2018 - A program on the Stephen W. Manchester American Legion, Post #62, which turns 100 in 2019, will be the topic of this program. . The Post building on Dunn Street was completed in 1929.

December 5, 2018- Peter Murray, local author and chef, and a life-long Westbrook native, will present this month's program.

Feburary 2019 -

Historical Society closed

March 6, 2019 - "Who Killed Alice Hawkes?"
Mark Swett, Westbrook resident an Historical Society member, will share some of his research into this unsolved 1987 murder.

April 3, 2019 - "The Conscientious Objector, the story of a Librarian from Portland, ME in 1917.": Suzan Roberts Norton, longtime Westbrook Historical Society member and former board member, diarist enthusiast, and non-academic historian, will present the story of a connection made through Westbrook family diaries.

The Conscientious Objector

May 1, 2019 - Pierre Harnois, Westbrook Chief of Police 1958: His life and death in the line of duty, as told by President Michael Sanphy

June 5, 2019 - Annual meeting - No Program

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2017 - 2018 Programs:.Historic Walking Tours, Postcards from the Edge,Remembering Westbrook, Westbrook Housing Authority, History of Stagecoach Trail, Saccarappa Cemetery

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.