The other day, a woman I did not know made idle chatter as we left the Westport Weston Family YMCA.
“This is such a nice place,” she said. “How long have you been a member?”
“Well,” I said, “I learned to swim back in old pool!”
“There was another pool here?” she asked.
“No,” I explained. “When it was downtown.”
“The Y was downtown?!” she replied, surprised.
“For about 90 years,” I said.
The original YMCA, built in 1923 (now Anthropologie). The beautiful trees — along with the Y — are now gone.
She must be one of the new COVID arrivals, I figured.
Nope. She moved here 3 years before that. She’s been a Westporter for nearly a decade.
How could she not know the YMCA was downtown — and that there was a years-long battle to keep it from moving from the old site to its current spot?
Then, I realized: How would she know?
The controversy — to leave what is now Anthropologie; the rejection of possibilities like Baron’s South; fears about traffic on Wilton Road; demolition of the “newer” Y buildings on Church Lane, and construction of Bedford Square — pre-dated her Westport life.
Construction of Bedford Square, 2015. Patagonia (formerly Westport Bank & Trust, soon to be Compass Realty) is in the rear.
To her, the Y was “always” at Mahackeno. There is no way — other than reading an occasional “06880” reference to it it — that she would know otherwise.
Which got me thinking: What else do those of us who have lived here “a while” take for granted, but which no newcomer would ever know?
The Westport Country Playhouse is one example. New-ish arrivals may hear about it — on this blog, through a flyer in the mail, or osmosis.
But unless they are musical theater buffs, how could they have any clue of the role the Playhouse played in American entertainment history?
The original Westport Country Playhouse, before its 2002 renovation. (Photo courtesy of Bill Stanton)
Its origin in 1931, as one of the first “summer theaters” anywhere? The legendary names — from Henry and Jane Fonda, to Olivia de Havilland and James Earl Jones — who have performed there? The roles Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward played in modernizing it, in the early 2000s?
(And, to be brutally honest: How many 30-somethings know any of those names in the paragraph above — including Newman and Woodward?)
The hundreds of new folks who have flooded into town over the past few years were attracted by amenities like Longshore. Realtors proudly showed off the golf course, tennis courts, pool, Inn and restaurant. They mentioned that it’s town-owned — not private — and open to all.
Did those realtors mention the back story: That the town bought it in 1959 for $1.9 million, to keep it out of the hands of a developer? And that if those leaders had not acted quickly, 180 homes would now be there instead?
The town’s purchase of the failing Longshore Country Club kept it out of the hands of developers.
Speaking of government: I’ve spoken recently with residents who mentioned our “mayor” and “town council.”
Maybe in New Jersey, Florida or Arizona. But here in Westport, our New England heritage includes a “first selectman” (currently, “selectwoman”) and “Representative Town Meeting.”
The RTM can be a mystery — particularly when only the initials are used. What does it do? Who is on it?
A
gain: How would any newcomer know the answers? Even those motivated by a particular issue — Long Lots School, say, or bike paths — may have only a vague notion of the RTM’s role in our town.
Nor may they know they’re eligible to serve on it. (Though not until 2027 — the deadline to run in this election has passed.)
There is so much more that older/longer Westporters know, but comes as a complete surprise to those who have been here even 6, 8 or 10 years.
Like: Staples High School was originally on Riverside Avenue. (And that before it was Saugatuck Elementary School, the building was also known as Bedford Junior High, and Bedford Middle School. The “new” Staples — opened on North Avenue in 1958 — has its own intriguing, tangled stories of renovations, starting with 9 separate buildings more suited to California than Connecticut.)
Or that the “Bedford” name refers to a fabulously wealthy family, with ties to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. And that their generosity can still be felt in many areas around town, including — let’s complete the circle — the YMCA.
Once upon a time, newcomers would learn all this, and more — The town of Westport bought Cockenoe Island in the 1960s to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power plant! — through stories in the local newspaper.
Westport owns Cockenoe Island. The town bought it when a utility company planned to build a nuclear power plant there. Pro tip: It’s pronounced “Kuh-KEE-nee.”
Westport had a newspaper?
Not one — several. The Town Crier. Fairpress. The Minuteman. The Westport News.
In fact, the Westport News still exists. Sort of.
It’s online (behind a Hearst paywall): http://www.ctinsider.com/westport.
There’s even a print edition, which seems to be sold nowhere in town, but may be available for home delivery if you are persistent enough with their hard-to-reach customer service people.
Which reminds me: Most new residents do not know — how could they? — that “06880” began in 2009, as an outgrowth of my long-running Westport News “Woog’s World” column.
Or that I began writing for the paper when I was a Staples student, way back in the day.
Just a few years after I learned to swim, at the downtown YMCA.
The original YMCA Brophy pool. It was used for Staples swim meets, before the high school pool opened in 1981.
(Another fun fact: “06880” is a non-profit, supported by donations from readers like you. If you enjoy your new — or old — town’s hyper-local blog, please click here to contribute. Thank you!)
