WESTBROOK – The annual Westbrook Together Days parade on May 31 packed downtown sidewalks and drew lavish praise from spectators, as the city now looks ahead to its bicentennial celebration, which will end a century-long wait to open a time capsule.
“This is the best parade I’ve ever seen the community have,” resident Lewis Lampron said Saturday during the 35th Together Days event. “It makes me proud.”
The parade was held in conjunction with the city’s 200th birthday. Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton and City Councilor Victor Chau, who led a City Hall contingent, carried a banner – “Westbrook – Proud of our Past, Preparing for our Future.”
A member of the American Legion Post 197, Arthur Spink, a Gorham resident, was the parade’s grand marshal and waved from a convertible. The parade also included a Memorial Day focus. Spink is a Navy veteran, who served during the Korean War.
The hour-long parade highlights included Westbrook Police Department and American Legion color guards, Public Service and School Department units, multiple youth groups, and bands.
“I like the middle school band,” said resident Lloyd McLaughlin. “They were very good, very professional.”
Resident Pat Cormier liked the Westbrook High School Marching Band and the entire parade. “I love it,” Cormier said. “It was wonderful.”
American Legion posts 62 and 197 members and auxiliaries rode on a float. Representatives of the Tate House Museum in Stroudwater were dressed in colonial-era garb. In early times, Westbrook was named Stroudwater.
A delegation from Westbrook Woman’s Club marched with a banner while a large contingent of its members rode on a float. The club founded Westbrook Together Days 35 years ago and the parade that has led the annual celebration.
Together Days events were centered in Riverbank Park, where members of the city’s bicentennial committee and the Westbrook Historical Society had a tent featuring historical photos and other artifacts celebrating the city’s history. Representatives from Sappi Fine Paper were also involved, displaying documents from the former S.D. Warren mill, as well as papermaking demonstrations. The centennial time capsule was also on display.
Hilton said the tent was a “huge hit.”
When the Westbrook time capsule, buried in Riverbank Park a century ago, is opened during the bicentennial festivities on Monday, June 9, items and documents will represent the Westbrook community of 1914, and organizers are hoping Westbrook residents are as excited as they are.
Kicking off at 6 p.m. at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center, the celebration will feature a half-hour performance by the Westbrook City Band, which will play until 6:30. Following the performance, the 100-year-old capsule will be opened.
According to City Clerk Lynda Adams, who led the Westbrook bicentennial committee, the time capsule has already been opened, but only three people, including Adams, are aware of its contents.
“We had to (open the capsule) in order to determine what the condition of the items was,” she said in an email Tuesday. “Thank goodness we did because many items were wet.”
Adams, along with Arty Ledoux, Westbrook’s deputy director of public services, and fellow bicentennial committee member Christine Latini, removed the items and stored everything in archival supplies.
During the official ceremony, committee members will display pictures of the process and discuss digging up and opening the time capsule and removing the items.
Adams said the event will also feature former city mayors, who will read some items from the time capsule. The entire capsule, which is a granite monument that contained the time capsule box, will be on display on the stage.
“After the ceremony is over we will allow people to go up on stage to view the capsule and items,” Adams said. “We will also talk about the new time capsule we plan to put together and show some items we plan to put into that time capsule.”
Hilton will speak and will present certificates to businesses that have been in Westbrook for more than 50 years.
According to Adams, the bicentennial committee has also invited relatives of former Mayor William Bragdon, who was the chairman of the Board of Trade in 1914 and was a central figure in the city’s centennial celebration. She said some of the relatives are traveling from as far away as Alaska.
Following the hour-long ceremony, there will be a reception in the middle school cafeteria. John O’Hara Jr., son of longtime city councilor John O’Hara, will be playing piano, and will be accompanied with a slideshow showcasing “then and now” pictures of Westbrook.
Adams said the event will offer shuttle bus parking from the high school in the event the middle school parking lot fills up.
“I have no idea how many people plan to attend, but am hoping for a good turnout,” she said.
City Councilor Victor Chau and Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton lead a City Hall contingent for the mammoth Together Days parade, carrying a banner that said, “Westbrook – Proud of our Past, Preparing for our Future.” 
In Saturday’s Westbrook Together Days parade, a mix of children with adult leaders flood Main Street downtown. 
The centennial time capsule, buried in Riverbank Park in 1914, sits in the city’s public services garage following its removal from the park. The contents will be removed and showcased during Westbrook’s bicentennial celebration on Monday, June 9.
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