The Downtown Westminster development did not begin until 2012, raising the question of whether the city, which was incorporated in 1911, ever had an actual downtown. 

“We get this question a lot,” Mary Oswell, volunteer with the Westminster Historical Society and member of the Westminster Historic Landmarks Board, said.

She laughed. 

“It’s a bit confusing,” she said. 

Westminster started as farmland in the late 19th century. While it did become a city in 1911, it remained just an area for farmers. 

A few stores, a blacksmith and an official city hall were constructed in what could be considered the first downtown area — near West 73rd Avenue and Bradburn Boulevard — by the railroad tracks, according to a “A Place and Time” published by the Westminster Historical Society. 

“The railroad was there, a lumber yard and a feed store,” Oswell said. “That area is as much town as we ever had before the second world war. The city didn’t want a lot of town. They did not ever create a business district.”

In a chicken-or-egg scenario, some Westminster historians said the city never had an official downtown because there were no saloons. But Oswell said there were no saloons because there was never a business district.

“The choice was they were just there to support the farmers,” she said. “A few things grew out of that, like the Rodeo Market, but not much.”

The first business district was the Westminster Plaza, created in 1955 near Federal Boulevard and West 72nd Avenue, with Federal serving as the main highway north at the time.

The city attempted to formulate areas of businesses and city buildings a few times in the 1950s, but the creation of the U.S. 36 highway in 1952 caused an array of issues.

Among them, there was only one offramp between Denver and Boulder.

“Until the offramp at Sheridan goes in, you couldn’t get off at Westminster,” Oswell said. “You’d have to get off the turnpike at Broomfield, turn around and come back to Westminster.”

In 1971, Gov. John Arthur Love signed a budget supplement to provide $250,000 to construct an interchange on the highway at West 88th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard.

That’s where the Downtown Westminster development sits today.

The mall opened right off the interchange in 1977, creating its own kind of business district.

“There’s never been a downtown Westminster. We have the historic Westminster area and city hall,” Jamie Chavez, president and CEO of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce, said. “There hasn’t really been an official downtown until this development.”