Westbrook, a magnificent sixty-eight-room mansion, was the country home of William Bayard Cutting, born in 1850 and died in 1912, and his wife Olivia, born in 1855 and died in 1949, while their main residence was in New York City. W. B. Cutting was an industrialist involved in railroads, banking, insurance, real estate, and sugar refineries. He married Olivia Peyton Murray in 1877. They had four children, William Bayard Jr., Justine Bayard, Bronson Murray Bayard, and Olivia Bayard, and one grandchild, Iris. After Mr. Cutting died in 1912, Mrs. Cutting continued to live at Westbrook until her death in 1949 and carried on his philanthropic and civic activities. He supported many charitable and cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera Company. The estate landscape was designed by the firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles Haight designed the house in a style primarily Tudor with some Queen Anne features. Stained-glass windows and the fireplace in the breakfast room are by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and some interior features, such as fireplaces and woodwork, were imported from Europe and are much older than the building.
