Westminster City

Jefferson County, Colorado

Westminster City Hall is located at 4800 West 92nd Avenue, Westminster, CO 80031.
Phone: 303‑658‑2400.

Neighborhoods

Beginnings [1]

In 1870, Pleasant de Spain homesteaded 160 acres northwest of Denver. A small community of farms grew as DeSpain Junction on the Denver Western & Pacific Railroad. At the time, it was a small collection of houses just west of Federal Boulevard near West 88th and 90th avenues. As early settlers sold out, real estate developer C.J. Harris purchased tracts to subdivide for fruit farms and platted a small village called Harris or Harris Park. The Denver Presbytery built Westminster University, which opened its doors in 1908. A year later, school officials formed the Westminster Realty Company to subdivide school land into 1,000 lots. In April 1911, residents of Harris incorporated, naming their community Westminster in honor of the university. By that time, the Colorado & Southern Railway and the Denver & Interurban electric line served the area. In subsequent years, automobiles traveled Lowell and Federal (U.S. 287) boulevards, the two major north-south streets. From its beginnings and into the 1940s, Westminster served as the center of some of the largest fruit orchards in the metropolitan area and included a community of horse properties. Its population reached 534 by 1940.

1. Thomas H. Simmons and R. Laurie Simmons, historians, Front Range Research Associates, Inc.; Dawn Bunyak, Historian, Bunyak Research Associates, Historic Residential Subdivisions of Metropolitan Denver, 1940-1965, nomination document, 2010, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

Nearby Towns: Arvada City • Broomfield City • Federal Heights City • Mountain View Town • Thornton City • Wheat Ridge City •