Westbrook, in Middlesex County, is located in southern Connecticut on the Long Island Sound. Originally part of Saybrook Colony, it was known as Pochaug until 1810 and incorporated as a town in 1840. Timber from local white oak and chestnut forests sustained a shipbuilding industry that flourished for nearly a century. The most famous vessel associated with the town of Westbrook is the Turtle, the world’s first submarine, invented by Westbrook-native David Bushnell. By the 1870s, the area had become a popular summer resort town—a characteristic it still retains today.
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McCain, Diana. Connecticut Coast: A Town-by-Town Illustrated History. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2009.
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Middlesex, Connecticut: From Actual Surveys. New York, NY: F.W. Beers & Company, 1874. Link.
Beers, J.B., & Company, and Henry Whittemore. History of Middlesex County, Connecticut, with Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men. New York, NY: J.B. Beers & Company, 1884. Link.