The Native American name of Quaropas described a landscape of white fog hanging above marshlands or white plains in central Westchester. White Plains became an English settlement in 1683, was incorporated as a village in 1866 and then, as a city in 1916. It is the seat of Westchester County government.

Additional historical documents from the City of White Plains are displayed on Westchester County and the Civil War. Documents, photographs and engineering drawings are exhibited on The Historic American Engineering Record of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation. A section of the parkway runs through the city’s entire western section.

Visit the City of White Plains online.

Captain Jonathan Horton's
Company Payroll,
Feb. - April, 1776

The Cochran Map of White Plains,
1776

Two Quaker Marriage Certificates,
1830 and 1859

McDonald Papers,
1844-1850

Assessor's Record of 1863 Deaths,
1864

Rosch Cartoon: The Presidential Snarl,
1890

Westchester Temporary Home
for Destitute Children
Album of Photographs,
1907-1908

The White Plains War Mothers' Files,
ca. 1918

Broadside of the
Declaration of Independence,
July 9, 1776

White-Plains Gazette,
December 30, 1828

Guion Memorial Picture,
ca. 1835

1845 State Census for White Plains

Westchester Temporary Home
for Destitute Children,
Admission/Discharge Records,
1884-1892

The Final Report of the
Bronx River Valley Sewer Commission,
1896

New York, Westchester and Boston Railway Engineers' Dinner Menu,
December 2, 1911