Longshore's 50th anniversary work begins

Even in a town as steeped in history as Westport, some of the stories that emerged Thursday night at the Longshore 50th Anniversary Committee's first meeting raised eyebrows.

Marie Corridon, a 1948 Olympic gold-medal winning swimmer, first learned to swim in a pool at the Longshore Country Club.

One resident's uncle may have served as F. Scott Fitzgerald's model for Jay "the Great" Gatsby.

In the '70s, a Westport nanny claiming to have connections with the group Hall & Oates publicized a free concert by that band at the facility.

"People came and brought picnics and waited, and waited, and waited, and she kept saying that they're on the way, they're stuck in traffic, but the whole thing was a scam," Dan Woog, a committee member, remembered. "Finally, a few Staples kids got up and played. That was the night the Westport nanny scammed the town."

Arguably the most impressive story, though, was that the town purchased the 169-acre site in just 19 days of work in the spring of 1960 -- for under $2 million.

"Westport has never moved as fast," said committee member Allen Raymond, 87, a town historian and member of the advisory group that served under then-First

Selectman Herbert Baldwin and worked on the purchase of the property. The decision passed the town's Representative Town Meeting in a 38-0 vote.

These are just a few of the many stories the committee hopes to unearth, organize and preserve as it begins its year-long celebration of the town's country club and public park.

Some 20 residents packed into an upstairs room at town hall last Thursday to begin the process. Several subcommittees formed by night's end, dedicated to historical research, event planning, publicity and fund-raising.

"It will be a lot of work, but it will be rewarding," said Scott Smith, the committee's chairman, after the meeting. Smith has served on the Longshore Golf Advisory Committee for 10 years. He said several people mentioned last summer that the facility was nearing its 50th year in public hands. The longtime golf editor and writer said he realized the time has come to focus on Longshore's history and role in town. He began discussions with Raymond and First Selectman Gordon Joseloff.

"Already, we've had an overwhelming response," Smith said. "In this day and age, with gridlock in Congress, gridlock and NIMBY-ism [Not In My Back Yard] in Westport, this is a project that everyone is enthusiastic about. This is a unifying topic and it's fun to be a part of."

Many organizations are already planning their own celebrations for Longshore, and they will team up with the committee to host various events. Those groups include the Westport Historical Society, the Westport Library, the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, Y's Men and the Longshore Sailing School.

The plan is to host a year's worth of events that will kick off on Memorial Day weekend, when the committee hopes to have a float or marchers in the parade. The committee also hopes to partake in the Westport Historical Society's 10th anniversary celebration of the tiled mural at the backside of the swimming pool, Smith said.

"After that, we'll have a presence in the Westport Rotary Club's annual golf and tennis outing, which is focusing this year on the Longshore 50th," Smith said. "And then we're working closely with John Kantor, who's conducting his own 50th anniversary celebration of the Longshore Sailing School. Then we'll do some other things as the summer proceeds and on into the next year."

One component of the project will be to launch an interactive Web site that will feature videos of people giving oral histories, photo galleries and a community blog. Smith said he hopes to get help for the digital aspects from Staples students.

"We want to get the cameras rolling so people can share their stories in a modern way," Smith said. "So much of Longshore's history has been lost, either to the winds of time or thrown in the dumpsters. Or the history vanishes as we lose longtime Westporters to history."

In tandem with the Web site, history buffs will be plumbing archives to string together the first-ever comprehensive narrative of the site. One goal of the project is to produce a coffee table-style book about Longshore as the year-long celebration ends.

All of this work will take money, Smith noted, which is why the fund-raising subcommittee will play an important role. The group brainstormed several ideas Thursday night to raise funds, such as selling "mulligans" to golfers that would benefit the initiative, collecting donations from individuals and companies and bringing in speakers or musicians.

If successful, the intitiative could also serve as a model for other towns around the country that might soon face situations like Westport did a half-century ago.

"People don't realize that all this didn't just happen, that Longshore almost became a housing development," Woog noted.

These days, as country clubs across the country face new social orders and financial realities, many of them will likely soon be on the market, Smith said.

"What we've done with Longshore just shows people what is possible," Smith said. "Just think what the alternative was: Longshore Estates, a subdivision with 50 homes in it."

Joseloff kicked off Thursday's meeting by drawing a lesson from the town's purchase. He seemed to try to impart that spirit upon the committee for its coming work.

"There's no limit to the number of committee members this board can have," he said. "This is a project that all of us can get behind. And without the usual Westport..."

He let his voice trail off as people chuckled.

To get involved, send an e-mail to longshore50@gmail.com, or attend the next meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the Westport Parks and Recreation building at Longshore.