Low brick commercial blocks from about 1895 to 1930 line Westport Road. A 1924 school on East 39th Street is where a 2026 film shot its hallway and gymnasium scenes.
What Westport looks like
The main road through the core runs southwest to northeast, and its brick commercial blocks sit close to the sidewalk and abut each other. The facades typically have a cornice above the first-floor storefront and a parapet at the top. Street trees line the road, and most buildings are one to three storeys.
Most of the commercial buildings date from about 1895 to 1930. Their upper storeys are largely intact. Many ground floors have modernized display windows and entrances, and some have awnings.
Bars and restaurants fill many ground floors, and the storefronts and facades change frequently along the sidewalk. is an Irish pub in the brick building at 500 on that road.
Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival detailing shows on eleven buildings, mostly from the 1920s, with terra cotta tile and shaped parapets. The at 3810 Main Street, a 1926 theater faced in yellow brick and terra cotta, is one of them.
Shot in Westport
Laura Somers's 2026 film Rise and Shine has its hallway and gymnasium scenes inside the former at 300 East 39th Street. The 1924 building is five storeys of tapestry brick with limestone and terra cotta. It stands east of Main Street overlooking Gillham Park.
Rise and Shine, 2026
Westport Middle School
The building has been known as the Offices at Park 39. In August 2026 Académie Lafayette signed a purchase agreement to open a middle and high school campus there. Street View
What Westport can double for
Ballard Avenue in Seattle, Washington
Ballard Avenue is a designated historic district of brick-faced commercial buildings built mostly between about 1890 and 1930, mostly one and two storeys high, with hotels and shops at street level. The scale and the storefront-level street are close to Westport's core. Ballard's blocks never rise above three storeys, so a wide shot that takes in Westport's taller buildings gives the substitution away. Frame the storefront row tight. Try searching brick storefronts historic district now.
Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence's downtown is a National Register district of brick and stone commercial blocks with large display windows at street level, in Late Victorian and early twentieth century styles. The J.E. Stubbs Building at 11th and Massachusetts was finished in 1909. The Lawrence blocks are flat roofed with symmetrical facades, so the cornice-and-parapet tops that mark Westport have to be kept in frame. Shoot at street level, where the storefronts carry the period. Try searching brick commercial blocks downtown now.
