Today Westbrook is a quiet Long Island Sound town of about seven thousand — salt marshes and a common river mouth, masts in the harbor at Pilots Point, the town green on the old Boston Post Road, and the Town Center Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017, that records three centuries of shoreline New England. Greek Revival and colonial homes along the old road still carry the markers of the "Descendants of Westbrook Settlers," and out in the marsh the cedar rise of Hawk's Nest keeps the shoreline's older geography in view. It is a town that wears its history lightly — and has more of it than almost anyone passing through would guess.
Then the inventor vanished. After the war and a failed venture in France, Bushnell dropped from public life entirely — and resurfaced, years later, in Georgia as "Dr. David Bush," a quiet country physician and teacher. Only after his death in Warrenton in 1824 did neighbors learn that the doctor down the road had invented the submarine. His hometown never forgot: the old red Bushnell homestead near the village is kept today as his memorial.
Why People Visit Westbrook
Westbrook offers quiet shoreline New England with a remarkable story beneath it. Visitors come for the beaches, the marsh and harbor, the historic town center, and the distinction of standing in the birthplace of the submarine. It's low-key, scenic, and steeped in Long Island Sound maritime heritage.
