WESTMINSTER : Museum Finds New Home in Blakey Park

The Westminster Museum has found a new and bigger home.

Since 1976, the museum has been located on Webber School property on Hoover Street. The school district is considering other plans for the property so the museum is moving to Blakey Historical Park, which was inherited jointly by the Westminster Historical Society and the city in 1991. The land was donated by Lea Ora Blakey, who came to Westminster by covered wagon in 1894 and died in Westminster at the age of 90.

Former Councilwoman Joy L. Neugebauer is executive director of the museum and president of the historical society.

Of the hundreds of artifacts, Neugebauer says, the most valuable are the archives, which include the researched history of Westminster, founded in 1870.

Artifacts include quilts from the 1870s, hats, agricultural implements, memorabilia from early doctors, a pictorial history of the land and its settlers and relics from the Indians who used to live in the area.

The city was founded by the Rev. L.P. Webber, a Protestant minister who traveled the length of the state looking for an ideal place to start a moral, temperate community, Neugebauer said. He found the flat lands and climate of Westminster the most desirable.

Not just anyone could move into Westminster in its early days. Those who wanted to buy land in the city had first to be approved by Webber, who had certain rules and qualifications--among them a pledge not to grow grapes for the purpose of making wine.

Neugebauer said that researching and writing a history of Westminster’s first 100 years for the city’s centennial in 1970 first whetted her interest in preserving the history of the city.

“It’s important for those who follow to recognize the struggles and hardships of the people who endured,” Neugebauer said. “We must also preserve our history of what happens today and tomorrow. That’s just as important.”

Neugebauer said she hopes to expand the museum’s history of Latino and Asian development.

The museum is open now by appointment and will open for larger tours in June.