We hope you have fun with our Westminster virtual walking tour. This web site was created just for you so that when you talk about the history of our city, it will be a "lively" conversation and not just boring reading from a textbook.

When you are strolling along the virtual walking tour, use the following list of questions to help you understand why the buildings look the way they do.

How a building looks is called its style of architecture. Do you have your own questions about why a building has a certain "style"?

1. The Rigg house at 7600 Bradburn Blvd. is a Dutch Colonial home.
How is this type of architecture similar to or different from your own home?

2. The Bowles house at 3924 W 72nd Avenue took 4 years to build.
Why do you think it took so long?

3. When Pleasant DeSpain came to this area in 1870 he built a "soddy".
Describe what a soddy looks like and tell what a soddy is made from.

4. Why was it so important to the City of Westminster to have an overpass on Lowell Blvd.?

5. By looking at the houses along Bradburn Blvdevard with chimneys, how can you tell the home is one of the older ones in the city?

6. What is a dormer? Why was the dormer on Professor Gregory's house at 8140 Lowell Boulevard, an important architectural design?

7. The first Harris Park Shopping Center has a brick facade with cinder block side and back walls. Why?

8. Why is the first Baker School called a "one-room schoolhouse"?

9. Gabled roofs and hipped roofs are common in Westminster architecture. Can you draw them? How do they look different?

10. The word "vernacular" means common or informal. Why were several houses in Westminster built in the Folk Vernacular style?

(Answers to these questions can be found by clicking on the Teachers link at the top of this page)