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History · Whitewater

Whitewater’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Whitewater. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

0old images & papers
0recent photos

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

Whitewater was first settled in 1866 on lands belonging to William 'Uncle Bill' DeVore and Linus Sanford. It was incorporated as a town in 1898. Whitewater was situated along the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway. In 1915, the town had a population of 350, with a number of stores, hotels, a school and churches.

The first mayor of Whitewater was P. N. O'Brien who was born in St. Louis in 1851 and who had previously lived in Cape Girardeau as he had owned the J. S. Albert Grocer Company in Cape Girardeau and helped found Shell & Albert, the first mercantile business in Whitewater; O'Brien also served the Whitewater postmaster for nearly a quarter of a century.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Whitewater’s history is told.

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people from WhitewaterWriters, athletes, leaders and more who were born in Whitewater.Meet them →
By decade

Whitewater, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in Whitewater is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Whitewater has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Burfordville Covered Bridge in Burfordville, 9 miles away.

Whitewater and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = Whitewater. Tap a dot.
Burfordville Covered BridgeBurfordville MillShady Grove CemeteryBig Hill Farmstead Historic DistrictMayfield, Will, College Arts and Science BuildingMayfield, Will, College Campus

Closest to Whitewater

Burfordville Covered BridgeBurfordville · Structure9miBurfordville MillBurfordville · Building9.1miShady Grove CemeteryDutchtown · Site9.7miBig Hill Farmstead Historic DistrictJackson · District10.6miMayfield, Will, College Arts and Science BuildingMarble Hill · Building10.9mi

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.
2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.
3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. Burfordville Covered Bridge’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in Whitewater?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Whitewater’s story, or a memory of it.
📷 Add a photo of an old place
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
📜 Allenville📜 Delta📜 Gordonville📜 Chaffee
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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01
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