Westminster, Maryland
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Westminster is a city in and the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Carroll County, Maryland Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 172,891. Its county seat is Westminster. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Carroll County ...
, United States. The city's population was 19,960 at the 2020 census. Westminster is an outlying community in the
Baltimore metropolitan area The Baltimore–Columbia–Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Central Maryland, is a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in Maryland as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It is part of the larger ...
, which is part of the greater
Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area The Washington–Baltimore combined metropolitan statistical area is a combined statistical area, statistical area, including the overlapping metropolitan areas of Washington metropolitan area, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan area, B ...
.


History

William Winchester (1706-1790) purchased approximately 167 acres of land in the area in 1754, which became known as White's Level and later the town of Winchester. In 1768, t11he Maryland General Assembly changed the name of the town to Westminster to avoid confusion with
Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...
. On June 28, 1863, the Civil War skirmish of Corbit's Charge was fought in the streets of Westminster, when two companies of
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
cavalry attacked a much larger Confederate force under General J. E. B. Stuart. This action delayed Stuart's forces from their joining the
Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...
. In April 1865, Joseph Shaw, editor for the '' Western Maryland Democrat'', suffered an attack at his paper: his presses were wrecked and his business destroyed. He was subsequently beaten and stabbed to death by four men in Westminster, allegedly because of an anti- Lincoln editorial that he published the week before the
assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...
of the president. In a later trial at the Westminster Court House, the four men were acquitted; they had claimed "self-defense" in their case. Since 1868, Westminster has held an annual Memorial Day parade, which is one of the longest continuously running Memorial Day parades in the country. Just north of Westminster is the
farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
at which Whittaker Chambers hid the so-called "
Pumpkin Papers The Pumpkin Papers are a set of typewritten and handwritten documents, stolen from the US federal government (thus information leaks) by members of the Ware Group and other Soviet spy networks in Washington, DC, during 1937–1938, withheld by c ...
" in a notorious mid-20th century case. A historic marker states that Westminster was the first place in the nation to offer
Rural Free Delivery Rural Free Delivery (RFD), since 1906 officially rural delivery, is a program of the United States Post Office Department to deliver mail directly to rural destinations. The program began in the late 19th century. Before that, people living in ru ...
postal service. On March 10, 2006, members of the
Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American unaffiliated Primitive Baptists, Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. It is widely considered a hate group and a cult, and is known for Prot ...
picketed the funeral of Matthew A. Snyder at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster. He had been killed in the
Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
. Snyder's father sued the Baptist church for violating his privacy; the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
ruled in favor of the church on free speech grounds in '' Snyder v. Phelps''. On June 26, 2015, the city of Westminster lit the Westminster Fiber Network, the first community-wide
gigabit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...
fiber to the premise network in the Mid-Atlantic region. The city partnered with Ting Inc., a subsidiary of
Tucows Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian publicly traded Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and incorporated in Pennsylvania, United States. The company is composed of three independent business ...
, to light the network and provide gigabit services.


Geography

Westminster is located at (39.576551, −77.000120). Westminster is approximately driving distance northwest of
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
and driving distance southwest of
York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...
. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Westminster has access to two water reservoirs at present,
Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
and Piney Run; the county has also proposed a Union Mills Reservoir and Gillis Falls Reservoir.


Climate

Westminster lies in the
humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
zone bordering on a
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
, with hot and humid summers and cool winters with highly variable seasonal snowfall. Due to its elevation and distance from the
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
and Baltimore's
urban heat island Urban areas usually experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect; that is, they are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day, and is most apparent when winds ar ...
, temperatures in Westminster are often lower than in Baltimore, especially at night.


Tornado activity

Westminster's historical
tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
activity is slightly above the Maryland state average and 38% greater than the overall U.S. average. On April 15, 1952, an F3 tornado (which has wind speeds of 158–206 mph) hit 15.5 miles from the city center, injuring four people and causing between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On July 19, 1996, an F3 tornado struck 5.5 miles away from the Westminster city center, injuring three people and causing $5 million in damages. On April 16, 2011, a tornado touched down around 8:00 pm EST. Shortly after sunrise on February 7, 2020, an EF1 tornado crossed directly over downtown, heading parallel to Maryland 27 northward on the west side. This damaged siding and shingles on multiple structures and brought down several trees. Schools across much of the county took shelter due to the tornado warning.


Demographics


2010 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were 18,590 people, 7,161 households, and 4,117 families living in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 7,684 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 86.0%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 7.0%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.3% Native American, 2.2% Asian, 1.9% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 6.0% of the population. 40% of Latinos in Westminster were of Mexican descent, 16% were of Puerto Rican descent, and 3% were of Cuban descent. 60% of Westminster's Latino population identified as
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 4% identified as Afro-Latino, 6% identified as being of more than one race, and 29% identified as some other race. Non-Hispanics in Westminster were predominantly White; 88% of non-Hispanics were White and 7% were African-American. There were 7,161 households, of which 32.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 42.5% were non-families. 35.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.12. The median age in the city was 33.3 years. 22.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 15% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.6% were from 25 to 44; 21.9% were from 45 to 64; and 13.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.5% male and 52.5% female.


Economy


Top employers

According to the City of Westminster, the top employers in the city are: The five largest employers just outside Westminster in Carroll County are:


Arts and culture


Hashawha Tower

The Hashawha Tower is a windmill in Westminster. It stands at the Hashawha Environmental Center.


Annual events

Many annual events are hosted by the city government, Carroll County Arts Council, Carroll County Public Schools, Carroll County Farm Museum & Agriculture Center, and other community organizations: * African American Read-In (February) * Youth Art Month (March) * Celtic Canter (March) * PEEPshow (March–April) * Wine Stroll (April) * Main Street Mile (April) * Westminster High School Culture Fest (May) * Flower & Jazz Festival (May) *
Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...
Parade * Downtown Westminster Farmers' Market (May–November) * Deer Creek Fiddlers' Convention (June) * Art in the Park (June) * Carroll County Celtic Festival (June) * Beer and BBQ Stroll (June) * Reese VFC Carnival (June) * Carroll County
4th of July Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...
Celebration * Westminster Pride Festival (July) * Roots Music & Arts Festival (July) * Carroll County
4-H 4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times ...
& FFA Fair (July–August) * Maryland SummerFest (August) * Reese VFC Car & Truck Show (August) * Maryland Wine Festival (September) * FallFest (September) *
Oktoberfest Oktoberfest (; ) is the world's largest , featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October. The annual event attracts more than seven milli ...
(October) * Oyster Stroll (October) * Festival of Wreaths (November–December)


Education

The Carroll County Public Schools (CCPS) system enrolls over 28,000 students, which makes it the ninth largest school system in the state of Maryland. In Carroll County there are seven comprehensive high schools as well as two career and technology centers and an alternative school, The Gateway School. Students in grades 9 through 12 attend one of seven Carroll County high schools. Carroll County has 23 elementary schools and 9 middle schools. In the city of Westminster, there are two high schools, two middle schools and three elementary schools. Westminster is home to
McDaniel College McDaniel College is a private college in Westminster, Maryland, United States. Established in 1867, it was known as Western Maryland College until 2002 when it was renamed McDaniel College in honor of an alumnus who gave a lifetime of service to ...
, the
Civil Air Patrol Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a Congressional charter, congressionally chartered, federally supported Nonprofit corporation, non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliaries, auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CA ...
's National Honor Guard Academy, and Dream Flight School, an institution providing flight lessons at the local airport.


Transportation

The main method of travel to and from Westminster is by road and four primary highways serve the city. The most prominent of these is Maryland Route 140, which follows an east-southeast to west-northwest alignment across the area. To the southeast, MD 140 connects to
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
, while northwestward, it passes through Taneytown on its way to Emmitsburg.
Maryland Route 97 Maryland Route 97 (MD 97) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The route runs from U.S. Route 29 in Maryland, U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Silver Spring, Maryland, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland, Mont ...
is the next most important highway serving the city, providing the most direct route southward towards
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Two other primary highways,
Maryland Route 27 Maryland Route 27 (MD 27) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Ridge Road, the highway runs from Maryland Route 355, MD 355 in Germantown, Maryland, Germantown north to Maryland Route 30, MD 30 in ...
and Maryland Route 31 provide connections to other towns in the area. Due to long-standing opposition to mass transit from local residents and politicians, there is no inter-county bus or rail transit linking Westminster to Baltimore County. A resolution passed by the Carroll County Board of Commissioners prohibits the Carroll Transit System from offering bus services into or out of the county.


Notable people

* Elizabeth Ann Bennett, actress * Brandt Bronico, soccer player * Francis Butler, American politician * Whittaker Chambers, former Soviet spy who testified against Alger Hiss * Joshua W. Hering, American politician, physician and banker * Chris & Jenna, Westminster indie piano pop duo * Mike Jenkins, strongman, 2012 Arnold Classic Champion * Bill Oakley, television writer and producer best known for ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
'' * Sargent Shriver, American diplomat, politician, and activist *
Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American Painting, painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediat ...
, renowned American abstract expressionist painter; owned a farm nearby * Joseph Will, actor * Theodore E. Woodward,
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
nominee, renowned researcher in the field of medicine


Sister city

* Paide, Järva County, Estonia


In popular culture

Main Street in Westminster was used as a location for the filming of '' For Richer or Poorer''.


References


External links


City of Westminster official website
{{authority control Cities in Carroll County, Maryland Cities in Maryland County seats in Maryland Suburbs of Baltimore Populated places established in 1764 1764 establishments in Maryland