The town itself is older than its famous invention. Algonquian peoples lived along this shore long before European settlement; around 1648 the area was settled as the "Oyster River Quarter" of the Saybrook Colony — the seed colony from which a cluster of Connecticut towns grew. The West Parish formed its own church in 1724, the place was renamed Westbrook in 1810, and in 1840 it was incorporated as a separate town. The "Oyster River" name says it plainly: this has always been a shoreline town.
Today Westbrook is a quiet Long Island Sound town of about seven thousand — salt marshes and a common river mouth, masts in the harbor, the town green on the old Boston Post Road, and the Town Center Historic District that records three centuries of shoreline New England. Bushnell's name is still remembered here, in a memorial house near the village.
Why People Visit Westbrook
Westbrook offers quiet shoreline New England with a remarkable story beneath it. Visitors come for the beaches, the marsh and harbor, the historic town center, and the distinction of standing in the birthplace of the submarine. It's low-key, scenic, and steeped in Long Island Sound maritime heritage.
