The Warren Congregational Church and parsonage (seen to the right of the church) was on the corner of Cumberland Street and Warren Avenue until 1969. The church was chartered as the second Congregational Church of Westbrook in 1868; the first Congregational Church was on Main Street in Westbrook Village. [Copies of both church charters are on display at the Historical Society.] The church was erected on land adjacent to the S.D. Warren Paper mill. The land was donated by mill owner Samuel Dennis Warren. Between 1871 and 1874 the church underwent renovations and a clock, purchased by the townspeople, was installed in the steeple. This clock soon became known as "The Town Clock". In 1882 the parsonage was built on Cumberland Street behind the church.
When deterioration of the church's basic construction made it necessary to tear down the building in 1969, the parsonage was sold and moved about 2 miles up Cumberland Street to become a private residence.
The Warren and Westbrook Congregational Churches then voted to merge and built a new church on Main Street, the Westbrook-Warren Congregational United Church of Christ. This new church incorporated most of the stain glass windows from the Warren Church into its interior decor.

In April of 2007 the Society received an e-mail from Trevor Taylor of England. He was seeking information about his grandfather, Jonas Taylor, who he thought was buried in Westbrook and had been a pastor of one of our churches.
The Society's obituary archives held a copy of the Rev. Taylor's obituary which contained a picture of this 32 year old Cambridgeshire, England native. He had been called to serve as pastor of the Warren Congregational Church in 1916 and he served there until his sudden death June 22, 1921. A quick search of our cemetery records found that he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery under a beautiful light brown granite stone. Photos of the stone, a copy of the obituary and photos of the church and parsonage where Rev. Taylor would have lived with his wife Ethel and children Wesley and Ethel, were quickly e-mailed to this grandson who had never had the good fortune to meet his 'grandad'.
Also in our files was a photo of a stain glass window dedicated to Rev. Taylor that had been in the Warren Church. A quick trip to the Westbrook-Warren Church found the beautiful window, "In memory of Rev. Jonas Taylor", there in the sanctuary.
This shows the purpose of a historical society!

Westbrook has always been a 'band' town. The Old Westbrook Band (above) was one of the early bands in the City, adding music to the parades and the gathering of veterans and playing at political meetings and fairs. It was active until 1894. The Salaberry Band (below) was organized in 1884 by the Rev. Father A.D. DeCelles and was probably named after Charles Michel D'Irumberry DeSalaberry who had become a French-Canadian folk hero after the War of 1812. With the loss of the old band in '94, the Salaberry Band took over its duties and also gave concerts in Riverbank Park. (This practice continues today with Westbrook's summer "Concerts in the Park'.) Years later, as membership started to dwindle, many of the old Salaberry members joined the S.D. Warren Band when it was organized in 1936.
From the early 1900s when Rudy Vallee played sax in the high school orchestra, to more modern times when the Westbrook High School Marching Band performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade, the Citrus Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl...Music continues to be a popular past time in Westbrook

Westbrook has long been associated with the S.D. Warren smoke stack. This is a picture of the stack taken during its construction in 1926...note the staging still at the top and the writing still incomplete. Ellie Conant Saunders, a long time member of the Historical Society and a life-long Westbrook resident, remembers that while the stack was being built you could ride to the top in a "bucket" if you were brave enough. One of her young girlfriends, Marion Smith, did and she became the heroine of the neighborhood! [The Historical Society photo collection contains a few snapshots that were taken from the top of the stack by resident who took the trip.]

Excerpts from the May 1954 Westbrook American:
Towering 353 feet into the air it is probably the highest smoke stack in New England, a landmark visible as far as 19 miles away. Aviators from Bar Harbor, 164 miles away can see the stack without gaining much altitude. The stack is 25 feet around the inside of the base, tapering to a circumference of 18 feet at the top.
Smoke from the stack gives the big pipe another distinction. Generations of Warren mill workers and residents of surrounding towns use the stack as a highly successful combination barometer and weather vane. Forecasting the weather is easy; if the smoke is blowing up river it means bad weather is on the way. (This figures out soundly since ordinarily storms hit this area on the wings of a northeaster and if the smoke is blowing up the Presumpsoct River it means the wind is blowing from the northeast.)
Weather prophet, landmark, navigational aid and symbol of the mill's high place in the papermaking industry, that's the S.D. Warren chimney.

Each letter on the legend WARREN STANDARD PAPERS was 6 feet high. It took 1,990 tons of brick, 1,200 barrels of cement and more than 5 months to complete the chimney. Both buildings seen in the photo are still there; the one on the left houses #9 paper machine and the ivy-covered building on the right is the Gate House. Still standing tall, the stack today bears the name: SAPPI FINE PAPERS, which bought the mill in the late 1990s. In the 1970s the mill was the largest employer in the area, having in excess of 3,000 employees; today it employs a little over 300.