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A bountiful place, the area surrounding the
Saugatuck River, rich in game and abundance from the sea, and
now in upscale stores and fabulous restaurants, Westport has
attracted people for thousands of years. Local Indians used the
lovely shoreline for their summer camps preceding (by hundreds
of years) current residents who bask in the sun at Compo Beach
and sail from Longshore Country Club. Early settlers, charmed by
the lovely – and rich – locale, began arriving early, around
1648, and quickly developed the area into a major agricultural
and trade center with wharves, warehouses, stores, taverns and
homes clustered around several hubs, Greens Farms, King’s
Highway, Coleytown and Saugatuck. The local militia played a
major role in the Revolutionary War, engaging the retreating
British in a skirmish near Compo Beach; there the Minuteman
statue commemorates the event. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s
the area grew, businesses and farms flourished and vacationers
discovered its charms.
Soon after the turn of the 20th century,
Westport was again “discovered,” this time by artists, writers
and musicians who flocked to the town giving it a slightly
bohemian, charmingly off-beat quality. The “artists’ colony”
grew quickly; theater, music and art galleries appeared, tennis,
sailing and golf became popular, and fine schools were founded.
Today, the population is a comfortable mix of young families and
older residents, small business owners and commuters, all drawn
to the vitality of a thriving and creative community. |
