Westbrook

Frenchtown evolves from its industrial roots Frenchtown is a historically French-speaking neighborhood of Westbrook, a Portland suburb that was long bedeviled by its reputation. “It used to have a paper company, and it would make a terrible smell,” says Chris Lavoie, a broker at Domaine Real Estate at Keller Williams Realty. Westbrook plants still produce some paper products, but changes to the mills did away with the odor years ago. Since then, Westbrook has worked to revitalize itself with new amenities. For evidence, look no further than the Dana Warp Mill in Frenchtown. The 19th-century mill was repurposed into a multi-use building that today is home to a gym, thrift store, tech company and more. “It’s been a slow but consistent process of bringing that community back,” says Lavoie, who has sold homes in the Portland metro for 20 years. “It’s been looked down upon in some ways, but the town is great.” Lower home prices in the Portland suburbs French-Canadian immigrants moved into the neighborhood as early as the 1850s, and many of the homes were built over the next century. As a result, vintage home styles abound, with Victorians, Colonial Revivals and American Foursquare houses all packed together. The residents have diversified from the French-speaking population of yesteryear. The lower home prices found in Westbrook compared to Portland are probably the biggest draw to the housing market, Lavoie says. “Some people are now fleeing Portland, because it’s more expensive, to go to the suburbs.” The median sales price in Frenchtown is roughly $350,000, though some houses fetch $675,000 or more. Westbrook High School teaches engineering, graphic novels If Frenchtown students attend Westbrook Public Schools, then they’re a block away from the closest elementary school: Congin School. Niche gives the school a grade of C. Older students may take classes at C-rated Westbrook Middle School or Westbrook High School, graded a B-minus. Westbrook High presents teens with a wide variety of elective options that explore graphic novels, engineering and wilderness survival. Pizza, craft beer and more in downtown Westbrook For a neighborhood spot with bar food, cold drinks and the sounds of buttons smashing and pinballs bouncing, locals can pop into Wessie’s Den, a tavern-arcade combo. Westbrook’s restaurant scene is concentrated across the Presumpscot River, less than a mile from Frenchtown. Nearly 20 restaurants and watering holes line a 1-mile stretch of Main Street. They vary from Mast Landing Brewing Co. to Blazes Burgers. A mile from Frenchtown, Hannaford stocks produce, fresh seafood and other groceries. For medical services, residents head 5 miles east to Maine Medical Center in Portland. Wander through the woods of Westbrook City Forest Westbrook residents can head north on Bridge Street to access two very different recreation options. One is the Westbrook Little League complex, a trio of fields that host baseball and softball leagues for kids between 4 and 12 years old. The other is Westbrook City Forest, a rustic preserve with a 3-mile trail that takes hikers and mountain bikers through corridors of evergreen trees. In between is the Westbrook Community Center, offering everything from pickleball matches to snorkel training. Parties by the quarry at Westbrook’s Rock Row Westbrook festivities are often held alongside a 300-foot-deep quarry. In 2023, Quarryside at Rock Row opened to host events next to the water-filled chasm. From weekend concerts to holiday markets, locals flock to Quarryside at Rock Row throughout the year. Eventgoers don’t go thirsty, as Portland-based Lone Pine Brewing Co. operates an on-site beer garden. A quick drive to Portland Westbrook acts as a suburb of Portland, but the city is just down the road. If drivers go east on Cumberland Street from Frenchtown, it’s 5 miles to Portland. Greater Portland Metro operates a Westbrook line, so residents may elect to take the bus to Portland rather than drive. For trips that require a flight, Portland International Jetport is 5 miles from Frenchtown.

Where the Westbrook of the past converges with its 21st-century identity, Prides Corner is a quiet residential neighborhood with an almost rural vibe and easy access to Portland, Falmouth and Windham, which are each 6 miles away. Pattie Gallant, a local Realtor at Coldwell Banker, says that the area has the same feel of Scarborough and parts of rural Portland, but without the higher taxes and traffic congestion. It’s this combination of room to breathe and convenience to local hubs that makes many people choose to live in Prides Corner. “It’s not well-known, but people are coming to the area because of a little bit more privacy, larger yards, a little bit larger homes as well,” says Matt Lamontagne, a broker at Signature Homes Real Estate Group. “The people are extremely neighborly. Westbrook, in general, is a really community-oriented city.” Older homes, some dating back as far as the 1890s, are mixed in with slightly newer homes from the early 2000s and an influx of new builds. Colonial and new traditional are the most common home styles in Prides Corner, but it’s also possible to find smaller Cape Cods and ranch-style homes. Prides Corner tends to have some of Westbrook’s pricier homes, but a lucky homebuyer might find a small two-bedroom fixer-upper for $350,000. Other homes can climb to around $800,000. Gallant says that people move here if they get priced out of Portland, want a little bit more land or desire a quiet, more remote way of life. “Properties are larger, but it really is a mix of homes in terms of age,” Gallant says. The land and quiet atmosphere, however, does mean that most homes here are on septic systems. Regardless, homes in Prides Corner are in high demand and inventory is low, leading to a lot of competition when homes make it onto the market. “Our average day on the market is five days,” Lamontagne says. “So it’s a very fast-moving market, no inventory.” Niche gives Westbrook Public Schools a C rating. Children can attend Congin School and Westbrook Middle School, both of which have C ratings, before moving on to Westbrook High School, which has a B-minus. According to Gallant, the district once struggled to keep up with the town’s growing population. But the district has made strides in recent years, most notably with major renovations of Saccarappa School and Westbrook Middle School. According to Gallant, the middle school has a state-of-the-art theater that gets rented out routinely for performances. “For years the schools were understaffed, and they had outbuildings – they couldn’t keep up with the growth,” Gallant says. “Now they’ve done a great job of keeping up with it.” Bridgton Road, also known as U.S. Route 302, runs all the way through Prides Corner and serves as its main road and reaching Interstate 95 takes just a few minutes. “The proximity to Falmouth and Portland and Windham gives it easy accessibility,” Lamontagne says. “There tends to be less traffic, tends to be an easier commute.” For further trips, Portland International Jetport is just over 6 miles away. Just outside Prides Corner, residents head to Hannaford Supermarket for groceries, challenge themselves to trivia night at Brookside Food & Drink or meet up at Lenny’s for dinner, drinks and live music. Prides Corner is mostly full of quiet, residential streets, but it does offer a bowling alley for private events and small golf driving range. Three miles away, there’s Rock Row, a former outdoor concert venue that’s being transformed into a giant mixed-use development with a conference center, retail, restaurants and a food hall designed to highlight the best of what the Maine food scene has to offer. Part of Maine’s Presumpscot Regional Land Trust, the Mill Brook Preserve stretches 130 acres with a dog-friendly 6-mile trail system in a hilly forest valley where residents hike and run. In late May or early June, locals may even glimpse the massive annual migration of alewife fish, a species that uses the brook every year to make its way from Casco Bay to Highland Lake. Other popular hiking spots in the neighborhood include Pride Preserve and the Hardy Road Conservation Area, the latter of which is also popular for snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, hunting and horseback riding. “I think people in Maine, in general, just enjoy getting out and being part of nature,” Lamontagne says. The Prides Corner Drive-In is a popular destination for residents, hosting regular old-school drive-in movie showings. “It’s one of the only Drive-ins left in Maine,” Lamontagne says.

Once a paper mill town on the outskirts of Portland, Maine, Westbrook has transformed into a bona fide suburb with its own Main Street downtown area. Just east of all the shops and restaurants, Cumberland Mills encompasses the residential area between the Presumpscot River and Interstate 95. As housing prices in Portland skyrocket, more and more people are moving to the edges of the city, resulting in a jump in population in the once-sleepy suburbs like Cumberland Mills. Today, this community boasts charming homes and hard-to-beat convenience, with big-box shopping near Interstate 95 on one end and local restaurants and town parks at the other. “Main Street is getting huge. And with the new mixed-used development at Rock Row, the buzz around Westbrook is palpable,” says Amy Mulkerin, who owns Mulkerin Real Estate and has sold multiple homes in town. Cumberland Mills is a mix of retail, industrial and residential space, with the busy shopping centers near Interstate 95 replaced by tree-lined streets further down Cumberland Street. Houses here are occupied by a mix of renters and owners, with many properties being duplexes. Early 20th-century constructions are common, such as 1920s American Foursquares with coastal shingle siding, though the neighborhood also has some ranch-style homes from the 1960s. A two-bedroom townhouse or a three-bedroom Cape Cod can sell for as low as $240,000, though a spacious, five-bedroom home can list for upwards of $550,000. The housing market in Cumberland Mills has been heating up, with the average home selling in just eight days. Public school students are zoned to the Westbrook School Department, where kids can start at Canal School, before moving up to Westbrook Middle after the fourth grade. Both schools score a C from Niche. Westbrook High, which earns a C-minus, is directly next door to the Westbrook Regional Vocational Center, where students can take career technical education classes. Residents near Main Street might hear families cheering from Fraser Field, a popular spot for youth games. The facility also has tennis courts and a trail to Riverbank Park just down the road. As the main park in Westbrook’s small downtown area, kids and adults alike enjoy outdoor recreation along the Presumpscot River. More than just a scenic spot to swing and slide on the playground or go for a stroll on the riverbank, the park is also a gathering place for the community. Westbrook Together Days, an annual celebration of the town’s community spirit, takes place at Riverfront Park. It’s a full day of festivities kicked off by a parade and wrapped up with fireworks. Chain restaurants and big-box shopping can be found near the I-95 entrance on the eastern end of Cumberland Mills. Residents can easily grab groceries from Market Basket or shop for clothes and home goods at Kohl’s. A new mixed-use development, Rock Row, is set to bring more retail, restaurants and a medical campus to the area in the next few years. “There’s a lot already there, but they’ve been filling up the quarry and turning it into a lake, and eventually, there’s going to be all kinds of restaurants around it,” Mulkerin says of the new development. On the opposite end of the neighborhood along Main Street is a cluster of local restaurants, with even more a mile away in Westbrook’s downtown area. Near Fraser Field, residents can wake up with a homestyle breakfast from Brea Lu or round out the night with a cold pint and deliciously greasy bar food from Stockhouse Restaurant and Sports. An Interstate 95 entrance is directly east of the neighborhood, making it easy to get around the Portland area, with connections to I-295 as well. Cumberland Mills is a largely car-dependent neighborhood, but residents can catch Greater Portland Metro buses from Main Street. Downtown Portland is roughly 15 to 20 minutes away by car, and the Portland International Jetport is just 10 minutes away for easy travel across the globe.