About Westmorland’s Oral History Collection

Members of the Westmorland History Committee initiated a project in 2006 to preserve the neighborhood’s history through oral history. The project involved long-time residents of the neighborhood and was an attempt to gather their memories of the neighborhood. The first interviews were conducted with three residents still residing in their Westmorland homes during the spring and summer of 2006. In March of 2010, interviews took place with a panel of seven residents from various generations at the annual Westmorland Neighborhood Association meeting. More interviews were conducted in Westmorland homes during the summer of 2010. In October of 2010, an interview team conducted interviews with six former Westmorland residents then living at the Oakwood Retirement Center on Mineral Point Road.

“Voices of Westmorland”

In 2013, a group of five volunteers spearheaded a major effort to collect oral histories from long-time residents for publication. Some of the residents still lived in Westmorland, while others had moved on to retirement communities. The resulting collection of interviews with 19 different families was published as the “Voices of Westmorland: An Oral History of a Neighborhood” in October of 2014 (copies are available for sale at the Sequoya Branch Library and the Village Bar). Since the book’s publication, the History Committee has continued to conduct interviews with eight additional current and former residents during 2015. The History Committee’s oral history project will continue into future years.

Click the links below to download transcripts of the interviews.

• Esther Toepfer Carswell
• Bob Dixon
• Dennis Herling
• John Leichtenberg
• Ann Libert
• Herman Liegel
• Victor and Vincenza Martinelli
• John McKenna, III
• Robert R. Paunack
• Earl Roberts
• Ronny & Jerry Saeman
• Louise Schadauer
• Maureen Rooney Welsch
• Oakwood Retirement Center Resident Interviews
• Panel Discussion: Living in Westmorland