Community Corner
Happy Birthday Westport!
Westport Celebrates 175th Birthday with Historical Re-Enactment at Saugatuck Congregational Church.
Today is the 175th birthday of the Town of Westport!
The Westport Historical Society marked the occasion at the Saugatuck Congregational Church with a re-enactment of the historical events attending Westport's birth.
Historical Society president Dorothy E. Curran wrote a lively script that gave a key role to Channel 12 newscaster Dianne Wildman. Her assignment was to investigate how chunks of Norwalk, Fairfield and Weston were assembled to create the town Westport by legislative fiat.
Find out what's happening in Westportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
After a courier-on-horseback swept to the church grounds and summoned Ebenezer Jesup from his mansion (now the church's parsonage) to give him the news from Hartford, the action moved inside the church sanctuary for a re-enactment of Westport's first town meeting.
Fittingly, First Selectman Gordon Joseloff assumed the historical role of Thomas Rowland, Westport's first First Selectman who was elected to his office shortly after the General Assembly in Hartford granted a petition to create the new town. The welcome news arrived on horseback on May 28, 1835.
Find out what's happening in Westportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Other historical figures were played in period costume by Selectwoman Shelly A. Kassen (Taylor Hurlbutt), Scott Smith (Horace Staples), Carl Leaman (Ebenezer Jesup), Craig Matheson (Daniel Nash) and Ed Vebell (John Gray 2d). Ariane Mermod was the courier astride Ben, a 20-year-old thoroughbred.
Westport's first town meeting actually took place in that very sanctuary, although at the time the church was located on the other side of the Post Road, opposite where the Westport Country Playhouse (then a tannery) is located. The business of the day was to select Selectmen.
When Wildman rose to address a point of order, she was told she was out of order – because women had no voice at town meetings of the day. She was told she'd have to wait 90 years for passage of the 19th amendment.
The birthday party continued with Historical Society participants in the church balcony reciting significant events in the history of the town to the present day.
Then all adjourned to the elegant courtyard outside the sanctuary for a proper birthday cake repast. Great Cakes of Post Road East provided the cake, all red, white and blue with fireworks . Joseloff, aided by 10-year-old Marion Yingling, blew out the candles and pronounced it a happy occasion for Westport.
