Richard Baker (merchant)

[1] He is best known today for building Westcliff, a large cottage in Newport, Rhode Island, designed by Richard Morris Hunt.

Baker was born on January 22, 1819, in Wellfleet, Massachusetts on Cape Cod and was brought up in Charlestown, the oldest neighborhood in Boston.

[12] In his will, he left his wife "his residences in Boston and Newport, his furniture, paintings, horses and carriages, and $10,000 at once, and $500,000 in trust--total supposed to amount to about $900,000.

[13] In 1871, Baker purchased 152 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston from the Jarvis Williams estate and moved there from their previous home, 47 Mount Vernon on Beacon Hill.

They hired noted architect Richard Morris Hunt to renovate and greatly enlarge the house, which they called Westcliff.

[18] In 1923, his daughter sold Westcliff which then comprised 10 acres, and was located between the Charles W. Lippitt and Oliver Gould Jennings estates.