Sanphy’s slide show

A slide show was the program for the Sept. 3 Westbrook Historical Society meeting, given by Mike Sanphy, recently retired Westbrook police officer and “Westbrook Then & Now” columnist for this newspaper. It was most interesting. We saw old buildings from Westbrook’s Main Street and realized the many changes there today. Mike is an excellent photographer as well as an informed history buff.

The Warren Block, located on Main Street at Bridge Street, was built in 1849 by Capt. John Warren, not the paper family, but a prominent lumberman.

In the late 1800s the C. B. Woodman drugstore occupied the first floor corner of the building. Mike’s picture, a photo taken in 1909, showed employees of the Woodman store, Charles Vallee (Rudy’s father), A. Boissonneau and Napoleon Fournier.

A second shot was of the Warren Block in the late 1930s, when the Woodman Pharmacy had been sold to Charles Vallee, and the name was changed to the Vallee Pharmacy. Rudy Vallee worked there with his father for a while.

On the Main Street side of the Warren Block, we saw a photo of the new Marguerite’s Lunch . A barber pole beside the Vallee Pharmacy and the lunch room indicated that there was a barber shop located there.

Photos of the fire that raced through the upper floors of the Warren Block on Feb. 13, 1942, were shown. Firefighters from Westbrook and surrounding communities battled the blaze in the early morning hours in freezing weather.

Workers of the O.G.K. Robinson Co. dismantled the upper floors of the building and renovated the first floor, which still stands. Vallee Pharmacy, Tom’s Restaurant and Rocheleau’s Clothing Store were first-floor tenants when the fire raced through the building, and they reopened in the same spaces after the building was renovated.

Photos of the building in the early 1960s were shown, with the Vallee Pharmacy, Tom’s Restaurant and Rocheleau’s Clothing Store still there. In 1964 photos, Vallee’s and Rocheleau’s are still in business, Tom’s is closed, and Sherwin Williams Paints occupies that space. Photos also showed the building in 2006 and 2008, after extensive renovations.

Next we saw the Westbrook Congregational Church, built in 1834, which served the community into the 1970s. Urban renewal purchased the church for $158,000 and demolished it. At that time members of the Warren Congregational Church, in Cumberland Mills, put their church up for sale, as it needed extensive repairs and the cost was prohibitive.

The city of Westbrook purchased the Warren Church, parish house and parish hall with the intention of demolishing the church, selling the parish house to someone willing to move it to another location, and converting the parish hall into a police station. (Interestingly, it was in 1868 that some of the members of the Westbrook Congregational Church were given permission to break away and form the Warren Congregational Church at Cumberland Mills. Both congregations are now merged together as the Westbrook Warren Church).

We saw early photos of the Westbrook Congregational Church with a clock in the steeple. The next photo showed the church without the clock. Nobody seems to know what happened to the clock once it was removed. We had an interior view of the church, and photos of the exterior. In a photo of the front of the church, we saw that the steps were a favorite gathering spot for young and old.

The bell was removed from the steeple, and it was relocated to the Westbrook Warren Church. A photo showed demolition of the parish hall at the rear of the church.

We really had a great view of Westbrook Main Street from the early days.

After the show I enjoyed talking with Jim Zaharis, who mentioned my column. I also enjoyed talking with Paul Levesque, who heard the Foote name mentioned, and spoke about his pharmacy, on Stevens Avenue at the corner of Pleasant Avenue, Portland. We lived on Hamblet Avenue then, and used his store there. He mentioned a relative, of his, Pat Connolly, who used to work for us as circulation manager at the American Journal.

New acquisitions

Ellie Saunders, on the Acquisitions Committee of the Westbrook Historical society, has sent me a list of new acquisitions received since the annual meeting. Among them, she listed:

World War I Battery D, 1918 uniform worn by Richard Knudson.

A three-postcard panorama.

An 1898 wedding gown worn by Ellen Melcher. Her father was a sea captain who he brought the material back from a world trip. Ellen didn’t like the cloth. She had the dressmaker add a white material to the bodice of the gown. A lovely gown. Two photos of Ellen’s great-grand daughter modeling it are included. This gown is displayed in our glass case for protection.

A framed autographed photo of Rudy Vallee and posters for movies of his.

An 1835-1850 gift of a Freeman Porter teapot, in excellent condition, considered a fine museum piece.

Poetry corner

We who read the American Journal are well aware of the excellent cartoons by Dale Leroux. He was our cartoonist when we owned the American Journal, and he still is. We have just received a poem by Dale’s mother, Rhoda Leroux. She is now 85 years old, and wrote this poem in 1983.

She wrote a note, with the poem, that she has five poems in the National Library of Poetry in Owings Mills, Md. We hear that Dale has just become a grandfather, which means that Rhoda is now a great-grandmother. Congratulations!

“Listen, people”

Listen, all you people

As storms begin to grow,

The man upstairs is telling us

As winds begin to blow.

The waters really rising

In anger everywhere.

Listen and you will hear

As God tells us to beware.

I know that God has spoken.

You don’t listen to his word.

The day is coming and you’ll know

What I have really heard.

The rich get poorer, the poor stay poor,

It will come to pass,

We the poor will overcome,

The rich will never last.

Good eats

This recipe is from Margaret E. Williams of West Bath, submitted to “Maine-ly Good Eatin’,” for the benefit of American Cancer Society, Brunswick.

WHOLESOME PANCAKES

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup skim milk

1 egg plus 1 egg white

1 tablespoon oil

Sliced fruit

Cinnamon-sugar to taste

Stir together flours, wheat germ, soda, baking powder, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, skim milk, eggs and oil; stir into dry mixture. Fry on a lightly greased griddle. Serve with sliced fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar. Yield: about 16 (4-inch) pancakes.

Variations: Before the pancakes set on one side, spread with peeled slivered apple, sliced banana or blueberries, and dribble a little batter over the fruit to prevent sticking. These are sweet enough to eat without syrup.

Mike Sanphy works his last patrol shift in June 2008. He retired after 40 years as a Westbrook police officer, the longest time served by anyone in the department.