To understand the major role local inhabitants play in making a colonial city, we must learn to recognize the many ways that they presented themselves and also acknowledge the processes by which their contributions were obscured. This article takes up this general challenge by focusing on colonial Bombay from 1854 to 1918. It shows that what was at stake was not only the varied processes of building, including obviously Western stylistic influences on local architecture, but that the colonial government had the power to selectively read the cultural landscapes created by local inhabitants, rendering the landscapes of the latter as potentially inconsequential. Although other factors and players were important in shaping the city, in this article I will look at vernacular architecture and urbanism to focus on the role of the local inhabitants in the construction of colonial Bombay.