Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Whitakers

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Whitakers

26% of Whitakers’ homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1961 on and the census since 1900.

0on the National Register
26%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Whitakers’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Whitakers are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,004 in 1960; 627 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Whitakers’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Whitakers, census by census

02004006008001,0001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,004

Peaked at 1,004 in 1960; 627 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Whitakers’ Wikipedia page.

The story

How Whitakers came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Whitakers.

Read it all →

The Porter Houses and Armstrong Kitchen was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Whitakers, 1876 to 1962

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1876Born hereNathan Mayo is born here
  3. 20th century
  4. 1960CensusPopulation peaks at 1,004
  5. 1961On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1962Post officeThe Whitakers post office opens
By decade

Whitakers, decade by decade

Today7 recent
Whitakers United Methodist Church2022Whitakers United Methodist ChurchWhitakers, North Carolina2019Whitakers, North CarolinaWhitakers, NC 042019Whitakers, NC 04Whitakers, NC 032019Whitakers, NC 03Whitakers, NC 022019Whitakers, NC 02Whitakers, NC 012019Whitakers, NC 012005-06-25 Whitakers, NC water tower20052005-06-25 Whitakers, NC water tower
On the map

Whitakers on the map, 1961 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Whitakers. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Whitakers on the 1961 USGS mapWhitakers on the 1985 USGS map1961Whitakers sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Whitakers.

Questions about Whitakers’ history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.