Whitwell is a city in
Marion County,
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, United States, approximately 24 miles northwest of Chattanooga. The population was 1,641 at the 2020 census.
[ It is part of the ]Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...
, TN– GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
The town that became Whitwell was originally known as Cheekville, but renamed "Whitwell" for Thomas Whitwell, a British metallurgist, inventor and co-founder of the Southern States Coal, Iron and Land Company, who was killed in an accident in his own ironworks in Thornaby in 1878.Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
celebration that has been celebrated for over 50 consecutive years.Whitwell City website
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Geography
Whitwell is located at (35.197570, −85.519082).Sequatchie Valley
Sequatchie Valley is a relatively long and narrow valley in the U.S. state of Tennessee and, in some definitions, Alabama. It is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains; it was probably formed ...
at the base of a relatively steep escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...
. The Sequatchie River
The Sequatchie River is a waterway that drains the Sequatchie Valley, a large valley in the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. It empties into the Tennessee River downstream from Chattanooga near the Tennessee-Alabama state line.
Hydrography
Th ...
passes just east of the city, and forms a portion of its southeastern boundary.
Tennessee State Route 28
State Route 28 (SR 28) is a state highway in the state of Tennessee, traversing the state in a north–south axis from south of Jasper, Tennessee, Jasper to the Kentucky state line at Static, Kentucky and Tennessee, Static.
Route description
...
(Hudson Street), which forms part of the main north–south corridor in the valley, connects Whitwell with Dunlap to the north and Jasper
Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...
to the south. State Route 283 connects Whitwell with Powells Crossroads across the Sequatchie river to the east, and State Route 108 (South Main Street) connects Whitwell with Grundy County atop the Plateau to the northwest.
According to the United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and 0.30% is water.
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,641 people, 784 households, and 536 families residing in the city.
2010 census
As of the census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.9% African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.2% Asian, 1.2% from other races, and 0.9% from two or more races. Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 2.1% of the population.
2000 census
As of the 2000 census, there were 727 households, out of which 24.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.5% were married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 13.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.6% were non-families. 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.28 and the average family size was 2.85.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 20.0% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 26.4% from 45 to 64, and 17.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 84.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $25,458, and the median income for a family was $31,151. Males had a median income of $26,550 versus $21,532 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $13,249. About 13.2% of families and 16.3% of the population were below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 19.4% of those under age 18 and 20.3% of those age 65 or over.
Education
Whitwell has three schools: Whitwell Elementary School, Whitwell Middle School, and Whitwell High School.
In 2018, Whitwell High School's Football team, the Whitwell Tigers, finished the season 15–0, defeated Cornersville in the 1-A State Championship 7–6.
Paper Clips Project
Whitwell has become renowned for the Paper Clips Project
The ''Paper Clips Project'', by middle school#North America, middle school students from the small southeastern Tennessee town of Whitwell, Tennessee, Whitwell, created a monument for the Holocaust victims of Nazi Germany. It started in 1998 ...
, a Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
memorial and educational project, that was carried out by children of the local middle school
Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...
starting in 1998. A subsequent documentary was made about the children's achievement. This project started because students at the local middle school wanted to visually grasp how much six million was. The students started collecting paper clips, one for every Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
who was murdered in the Holocaust during World War II. This project soon attracted media attention and international support. Many Jewish notables sent paper clips representing lost members of their families. The children collected well over the number of paper clips they wanted (11 million, representing all noncombatant prisoners—Jew and Gentile—killed by the Nazis). The total collected number of paper clips now stands between ten and fifty million. This number is approximately equal to the total number of war deaths between 1939 and 1945. The rail car that appears in the movie is original rolling stock, actually used to transport Jews to the concentration camps. This rail car is located at the Whitwell Middle School. The Middle School routinely hosts Holocaust survivors as well as other guest speakers on the subject of the Holocaust.
Notable persons
* Jon Coffelt (b. 1963), artist
* Hillis Layne (1918–2010), former Major League Baseball player
* Bennie Tate (1901–1973), former Major League Baseball player
* Ruth Marie Terry (1936–1974), murder victim whose body was found in Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...
References
Baseball Almanac
External links
City website
City charter
{{authority control
Cities in Marion County, Tennessee
Cities in Tennessee
Chattanooga metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1956
1956 establishments in Tennessee