Area Overview
Westboro sits south of 17th Street, east of Gage Boulevard, and runs roughly to Washburn University on the east side. ZIP code 66606 covers most of the neighborhood. The street grid is tight, the alleys are still in use for trash service and garage access, and the lots tend to be deep and narrow.
The housing stock is mostly two-story brick Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival built between 1920 and 1948, with smaller Cape Cods and bungalows mixed in. A handful of mid-century ranches infilled in the 1950s on lots that originally held older houses lost to fire or redevelopment.
Garages in Westboro are almost entirely detached single-car structures sitting on alley-access lots at the back of the property. Many were built the same year as the house using brick that matches the home's exterior. A significant number of the original wooden one-piece tilt-up doors were converted to sectional doors in the 1980s and 1990s, and those conversion jobs are now showing their age.
Common Issues
- Undersized headers above the door opening — original 1920s detached garages were built for Model A-era cars, and the framing above the door is often too low for standard headroom hardware. We frequently install low-headroom torsion conversions in Westboro garages.
- Brick rot at the door jambs from decades of moisture wicking up from the alley — affects how cleanly we can shim and align replacement track.
- Single-car door widths of 8 ft and 9 ft (instead of the modern 16 ft double) — replacement panels are still available but require ordering.
- Conversion-era hardware (1980s-90s) finally giving up — original sectional door springs from a 1985 conversion are 35+ years and 40,000+ cycles past their design life.