White Plains

Its downtown (Mamaroneck Avenue) is 25 mi north of Midtown Manhattan. The city's total population was 59,599 in the 2020 census, up from 53,077 at the 2010 census. According to the city government, the daytime weekday population is estimated at 250,000.

• Name — White Plains, New York • Settlement Type — City • Mapsize — 250x200px • Nickname — The Birthplace of New York State • Motto — Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful) • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — United States • Subdivision Type1 — State • Subdivision Name1 — New York • Subdivision Type2 — County • Subdivision Name2 — Westchester • Government Type — Mayor-council • Leader Title — Mayor • Leader Name — Justin C. Brasch (D) • Leader Title1 — Common council • Established Title — Settled • Established Title2 — Incorporated (village) • Established Title3 — Incorporated (city) • Area Total Km2 — 25.54 • Area Land Km2 — 25.22 • Area Water Km2 — 0.32 • Population As Of — 2020 • Population Total — 59559 • Population Density Km2 — 2361.77 • Population Blank1 — 250,000 • Timezone — Eastern • Utc Offset — −5 • Timezone Dst — Eastern • Utc Offset Dst — −4 • Elevation Ft — 213 • Postal Code Type — ZIP Codes • Postal Code — 10601-10607 & 10610 • Area Code — 914 • Blank Name — FIPS code • Blank Info — 36-81677 • Blank1 Name — GNIS feature ID • Blank1 Info — 0977432 • Population Blank1 Title — Daytime population • Population Density Sq Mi — 6116.77 • Unit Pref — Imperial • Area Total Sq Mi — 9.86 • Area Land Sq Mi — 9.74 • Area Water Sq Mi — 0.12

At the time of the Dutch settlement of Manhattan in the early 17th century, the region had been used as farmland by the Weckquaeskeck tribe, a Wappinger people, and was called "Quarropas". To early traders it was known as "the White Plains", either from the white balsam (Gnaphalium polycephalum) which was said to have covered it, or from the heavy mist that local tradition suggests hovered over the swamplands near the Bronx River. The first non-native settlement came in November 1683, when a party of Connecticut Puritans moved westward from an earlier settlement in Rye and bought about 4400 acre, presumably from the Weckquaeskeck. However, John Richbell of Mamaroneck claimed to have earlier title to much of the territory through his purchase of a far larger plot extending 20 mi inland, perhaps from a different tribe. The matter was not settled until 1721, when a Royal Patent for White Plains was granted by King George II. In 1758, White Plains became the seat of Westchester County when the colonial government for the county left West Chester, which was located in what is now the northern part of the borough of the Bronx, in New York City. The unincorporated village remained part of the Town of Rye until 1788 when the town of White Plains was created. On July 9, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence was delivered to the New York Provincial Congress, which was meeting in the county courthouse. The delegates quickly adopted a resolution approving the Declaration, thus declaring both the colony's independence and the formation of the State of New York. The Declaration itself was first publicly read from the steps of the courthouse on July 11. During September and October 1776, troops led by George Washington took up positions in the hills of the village, hotly pursued by the British under General Sir William Howe, who attacked on October 28. The Battle of White Plains took place primarily on Chatterton Hill, (later known as "Battle Hill," and located just west of what was then a swamp but is now the downtown area) and the Bronx River. Howe's force of 4,000–6,000 British and Hessian soldiers required three attacks before the Continentals, numbering about 1,600 under the command of Generals Alexander McDougall and Israel Putnam, retreated, joining Washington's main force, which did not take part in the battle. Howe's forces had suffered 250 casualties, a severe loss, and he made no attempt to pursue the Continentals, whose casualties were about 125 dead and wounded. Three days after the battle, Washington withdrew north of the village, which was then occupied by Howe's forces. But after several inconclusive skirmishes over the next week, Howe withdrew on November 5, leaving White Plains to the Continentals. Ironically, one of Washington's subordinates, Major John Austin, who was probably drunk after having celebrated the enemy's withdrawal, reentered the village with his detachment and proceeded to burn it down. Although he was court-martialed and convicted for this action, he escaped punishment. The first United States Census, conducted in 1790, listed the White Plains population at 505, of whom 46 were slaves. New York City's population at that time was about 33,000. By 1800, the population stood at 575 and in 1830, 830. By 1870, 26 years after the arrival of the New York Central Railroad, it had swollen to 2,630 and by 1890 to 4,508. In the decades that followed the count grew to 7,899 (1900) and 26,425 (1910). White Plains was incorporated as a village in 1866 and as a city in 1916.

• Illustration — Main Street in White Plains After World War II, White Plains' downtown area developed into a shopping district featuring branches of many famous New York-based department and specialty stores. Some of these retail locations were the first large-scale suburban stores built in the United States. In 1949, Macy's launched a grand White Plains store on Main Street across from City Hall. Other prestigious stores followed, such as B. Altman and Company, Rogers Peet, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Alexander's, Wallachs, and a short-lived branch of Bergdorf Goodman, which was converted to sister chain Neiman Marcus in 1981. Construction of nearby parkways and expressways in the 1940s through the 1970s brought shoppers from elsewhere. During the late 1960s, the city of White Plains developed an extensive urban renewal plan for residential, commercial and mixed-use redevelopment that called for the demolition of its entire central business district from the Bronx River Parkway east to Mamaroneck Avenue. By 1978, the urban renewal program centered around the construction of the Westchester County Courthouse (1974), the Westchester One office building (1975), the Galleria at White Plains mall (1978), and a number of other office towers, retail centers and smaller commercial buildings. At the time of its construction, the Westchester One building was the largest office building between New York City and Albany, and east to Hartford. Beginning in the 1950s, many major corporations based in New York City moved operations to White Plains and other suburban locations. These included General Foods, PepsiCo, Hitachi USA, IBM, Nestlé, Snapple, and Heineken USA. In the 1980s, at least 50 Fortune 500 corporations had their headquarters in Westchester County and nearby Fairfield County, Connecticut, but with the corporate mergers and downsizing of the 1990s, many of these companies reduced their operations in White Plains or left the area completely. • Illustration — New York Power Authority and Main Street White Plains is home to the Arts Exchange Building, which serves as the headquarters of the Westchester Arts Council. Since March 1999, visual and performing artists, emerging cultural organizations and new creative businesses have had studios and offices in the building. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The construction of the Galleria at White Plains mall in the 1970s ushered in a new era of downtown retail and office development, but by the early 1990s, economic development had stagnated, hampered by a deep recession and the overbuilding of the commercial real estate markets. For a time, White Plains had one of the highest office vacancy rates in the northeastern United States. Consolidation within the retail industry led to the closing of many of downtown's department and specialty stores. After its bankruptcy, the B. Altman store closed in 1989 and was demolished to make way for The Westchester, an upscale mall that opened in 1995 with anchors Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. A freestanding branch of Macy's, one of downtown's original retail anchor stores, was moved two blocks away to The Galleria mall by its parent company, Federated Department Stores, replacing sister retailer Abraham & Straus when these two store divisions were merged in 1995. • Illustration — City Center on Mamaroneck Avenue A new courthouse for the Southern District of New York was opened in 1998 and several large-scale office properties in and near downtown, including the former General Foods headquarters building, were retrofitted and leased to accommodate smaller businesses. The Macy's store on Main Street remained vacant for several years until it was also later demolished to make way for the massive City Center at White Plains complex. This large mixed-use development features two 35-story apartment and condominium towers, 600000 sqft of retail, restaurant and entertainment space and new parking facilities. The 21st century marked an upturn in commercial business development and in residential construction, with a 19% population increase in White Plains recorded between 2000 and 2015. The Census Bureau noted the City as the fastest growing in New York state, in May 2016. The city is 31 minutes by express train from Midtown Manhattan, and this has attracted new residents who commute to New York City for work. In early 2003, the Saks Fifth Avenue location was closed and demolished; it was replaced in 2004 with the large retail complex called The Source at White Plains. In 2007, construction was completed on Renaissance Square, a downtown parcel that includes the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel.

• Illustration — White Plains, N.Y. 1887. Includes list of important locations. White Plains is bordered to the north by the town of North Castle, to the north and east by the town/village of Harrison, to the south by the town/village of Scarsdale, and to the west by the town of Greenburgh. The city is about 7 mi east of the Hudson River and 7 mi northwest of the Long Island Sound. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, White Plains has a land area of 9.77 sqmi, and a population density of 5,820.3 PD/sqmi.

White Plains has a humid continental climate, with four distinct seasons. Winter is cold and wet, with occasional snow and an average January temperature of 29.8 °F, and summer is hot and humid, with a mean July temperature of 74.0 °F. In spring and fall, temperatures can fluctuate from cool to hot, but are usually mild and comfortable. Precipitation is plentiful in all months of the year. The city receives about 229 clear or partly cloudy days per annum, with July typically being the sunniest month, averaging more than 70 percent of possible sunshine. The lowest temperature ever recorded in White Plains since record-keeping began in 1948 was −10 °F on January 19, 1977, and the highest ever was 102 °F on July 6, 2010. Over the course of a typical year, there are 18 days of at least 90 F temperatures, and seven days when temperatures do not rise above the freezing point.

• Rank||Building||Height||Floors||Built|| • 1 — The Residences at the Ritz Carlton, Westchester – North Tower — 44 — 2008 • 2 — The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Westchester – South Tower — 44 — 2008 • 3 (tie) — One City Place — 35 — 2004 • 3 (tie) — The Tower at City Place — 35 — 2005 • 5 — Westchester County Courthouse — 19 — 1974 • 6 — Gateway Building — 18 — 1985 • 7 — 25 Bank Street — 22 — 2003 • 8 — 15 Bank Street — 21 — 2003 • 9 — Clarence D. Rappleyea Building — 17 — 1981 • 10 — Westchester One — 21 — 1976

The City of White Plains includes various neighborhoods of differing characters and sizes, some of which contain multiple subsections: • Battle Hill • Carhart • Colonial Corners • Dekalb • Downtown White Plains • East White Plains • Eastview • Ferris Avenue • Fisher Hill • Fulton Street • Gedney (Gedney Circle, Gedney Farm Gardens, Gedney Farms, Gedney Manor, Gedney Meadows, Gedney Park) • Green Acres • Haviland Manor • Highland Park • Highlands (Lower Highlands, Upper Highlands) • Hillair • Holbrooke • Idle Forest • North Broadway • North Street (Club Pointe, Country Club Ridge, The Fairways, The Greens) • North White Plains • Old Mamaroneck Road • Old Oak Ridge • Prospect Park • Reynal Park • Rocky Dell • Rosedale (Brook Hills, Cobblefield, Rosedale Estates, Rosedale Gardens, Rosedale Manor, Rosedale Park, Rosedale Woods) • Saxon Woods • Soundview • Westminster Ridge • Woodcrest Heights

• Illustration — Tibbetts Park, downtown • Ebersole Ice Rink • Maple Moor Golf Course • Saxon Woods Park provides a range of recreational amenities, including trails, a standard and miniature golf course, and the largest swimming pool in Westchester. • Silver Lake Preserve • Westchester Golf Range

• Knollwood Country Club • Metropolis Country Club • Westchester Hills Golf Club

During the 1950s to the 1990s, numerous New York City companies relocated to White Plains and other suburban New York City communities, so that its economy is tied to large corporations that have moved to the city, such as New York-Presbyterian Hospital, ITT, and the U.S. headquarters of Heineken International. ITT relocated to Connecticut in 2022, with its spin-off company, Xylem remaining headquartered in White Plains. Other companies based in White Plains include the New York Power Authority, PURE Insurance, Dannon, Krasdale Foods, C-Town supermarkets, AboveNet Gerber Life Insurance Company Atlas Air, Combe, along with the international headquarters of Nine West, Allegiance Financial, Nokia, and AllianceBernstein.

The White Plains Public School System, with a 2006 enrollment of more than 6,000 students, maintains five elementary schools (grades K–5), two middle schools (Eastview for grade 6, Highlands for grades 7–8) and one high school (9–12), as well as auxiliary facilities, including a pre-kindergarten program, a community school (grades 7–12), adult and continuing education, and a program for school-age patients at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, whose campus is located in the city. Since 1988 the district has operated under a Controlled Parents' Choice Program, whereby the parents of elementary school children can select the school which their child attends based on factors other than proximity to the school. The five elementary schools, in addition to teaching core competencies, have different educational focuses including science and technology, communication arts and global understanding. Two of the elementary schools offer bilingual education where children are taught in both English and Spanish. Both English speaking and Spanish speaking families can choose to be entered into a lottery for a place in the bilingual classes. White Plains High School, built in the late 1950s (when it moved from The Highlands School) on a acre campus (formerly James Cash Penney's 72-acre Westchester Estate, until he moved to Westport, Connecticut in the 1940s), serves public school students in grades 9–12. The school has a swimming pool that overlooks a small valley that holds the track and football field. The White Plains Recreation Department works with the schools to offer programs. The district is governed by a seven-member Board of Education, elected at-large for staggered three-year terms. A school superintendent reports to the Board.

• Archbishop Stepinac High School on Mamaroneck Avenue in the Gedney area • Good Counsel Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school for more than a century operated by the Sisters of the Divine Compassion on North Broadway, and Good Counsel Elementary (Pre-K through Grade 8, coeducational) located on the same campus close to the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, have both closed, due to declining enrollments, and the aging and increased medical costs for the nuns of the order., • Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School in the Gedney area • German School New York on Partridge Road • Solomon Schechter School of Westchester Lower School (Grades K-5) • Windward School (for children with language-based learning disabilities)

• Fordham University Westchester Campus is home to Fordham's Graduate Schools of Business Administration, Education, Social Service, and Religion and Religious Education. • Pace University The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace is located on North Broadway in White Plains. This campus originally belonged to Good Counsel College, later named the College of White Plains (1972–1976). The College of White Plains merged with Pace University in 1976. Pace formerly had a Graduate School campus in an office building on Martine Avenue in downtown White Plains. That location has closed. • The College of Westchester, formerly known as the Westchester Business Institute • Berkeley College (closed 2021) • Mercy College

As of the 2020 census, White Plains had a population of 59,559. The median age was 40.9 years. 19.0% of residents were under the age of 18 and 19.0% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 90.7 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 88.3 males age 18 and over. 100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas. There were 24,162 households in White Plains, of which 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 42.7% were married-couple households, 19.0% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 32.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 34.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 25,494 housing units, of which 5.2% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.6%. Racial composition as of the 2020 census • Race — Number — Percent • White — 28,583 — 48.0% • Black or African American — 7,146 — 12.0% • American Indian and Alaska Native — 729 — 1.2% • Asian — 4,804 — 8.1% • Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander — 36 — 0.1% • Some other race — 10,967 — 18.4% • Two or more races — 7,294 — 12.2% • Hispanic or Latino (of any race) — 19,426 — 32.6%

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 56,853 people residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 48.9% white, 13.2% Black, 0.1% Native American, 6.3% Asian, (b) signifies that the person was born in White Plains. • Admiral Dot, real name Leopold Kahn, little person, lived in White Plains where he founded The Admiral Dot Hotel • Katrina Adams, former professional tennis player and former USTA president • Richard H. Anderson, World War II ace-in-a-day • Patrick Baxter (serial killer), serial killer • Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy Jr., born in White Plains (b) • Adam Bradley, mayor of White Plains from 2010 to 2011 • Hikaru Nakamura, five-time United States Chess Champion, and youngest American Grandmaster. Born in Japan and later moved to White Plains with his mother, brother and stepfather at the age of 2. • Brian Burton (Danger Mouse), musician, songwriter and producer (b) • Joseph Campbell, author and expert on myth and legend (b) • Sonia Citron, WNBA player (b) • Erin Cardillo, actress, was born in White Plains • Lynn Conway, computer scientist responsible for the Mead and Conway revolution in Very-large-scale integration design • Glenn Cooper, thriller writer and film producer • John Curran, financial journalist • Jennifer Damiano, Broadway actress, noted for her roles in Next to Normal and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark • Dan Duryea, actor (b), was born in White Plains and graduated from White Plains High School in 1924 • Frank Enea, musician and composer, was born in White Plains • Johnny Farrell, golfer, 1928 U.S. Open champion, was born in White Plains • Noah Fleiss, actor, was born in White Plains • Drew "Dru-Ha" Friedman, hip-hop record executive of Duck Down Music Inc., born and raised in White Plains • Channing Frye, NBA forward (b) • Percy Grainger, Australian-born U.S. composer, pianist and conductor • Shelley Hack, actress and supermodel (b) • David Harbour, actor (b) • Ellen Holly, actress • Eric Holtz, Head Coach of the Israel National Baseball Team • Bob Hyland, NFL lineman and candidate for mayor • Deacon Jones, MLB infielder, born in White Plains • Nancy Kissinger, wife of Henry Kissinger • Jonathan Larson, writer of musical Rent (b) • Harry Lauter, character actor • Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist, grew up in White Plains • Joseph Magaletti, convicted murderer and suspected serial killer, was born in White Plains • Matisyahu, American Jewish reggae artist • Jesse McCartney, singer-songwriter and actor, lived in White Plains • Mike McGlone, actor • John Mara, co-owner and president of the New York Giants • Emily McLaughlin, soap opera actress • Boyd Melson, boxer • Art Monk, NFL Hall of Famer (wide receiver) played football for White Plains High School • Chris Murphy, U.S. senator for Connecticut (b) • Tommy O'Sullivan, rower at Row America Rye, philanthropist, poet • Garrick Ohlsson, classical pianist • Nicholas Orzio, photographer (b) • Candace Owens, political commentator born in White Plains (b) • Joseph Polchinski, theoretical physicist and string theorist (b) • Justin Raimondo, author and editorial director of Antiwar.com (b) • Scott Reiniger, actor, and, as "Prince of Ghor", a hereditary prince (b) • Louise Reiss (1920–2011), physician who coordinated what became known as the Baby Tooth Survey, which found Strontium-90 in the deciduous teeth of children living in the St. Louis area • JD Roberto, game show host and writer best known for hosting Shop 'Til You Drop from 2003 to 2005, replacing former host Pat Finn. (b) • Jimmy Roberts, journalist and broadcaster • Vanessa Rousso, professional poker player (b) • Bhaskar Sunkara, political writer • Andrew S. Tanenbaum, computer scientist and professor • Micah Townshend, Secretary of State of Vermont • Ralph Waite, actor who played John Walton in The Waltons television series (b) • Chris Watson, American-Israeli basketball player • Claire Weinstein, Olympic silver medalist freestyle swimmer • James Whitmore, actor known for such films as The Asphalt Jungle and The Shawshank Redemption (b) • Rhys Williams, soccer player (b) • Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (b)