It’s time once again for #FlashbackFriday with the Whitewater Historical Society. This week we are responding to a request from September for a view of the outside of the old Esterly School once located at the west end of Center Street. This building was constructed around 1860 and used as the spacious home of George Esterly, Whitewater’s most prominent industrialist in the 19th century. When the Esterly company left Whitewater in 1892 and George Esterly died in 1893, the house became available. At the same time, the nearby Union School (Big Brick, corner of Center and Prairie Streets) was being taken over by Whitewater’s new high school program so elementary school children were moved from the Union School to this building beginning in 1894. The Esterly School was used until 1927, when it was razed for the new Whitewater High School building (old Franklin Junior High School, not extant).

Join us next week for more from the Whitewater Historical Society.

(4458PC, Whitewater Historical Society)