History
The town of Whiteway was named officially to Whiteway by proclamation on August 13, 1912, after a Newfoundland 3 time elected premier Sir William Vallance Whiteway. It’s original name “Witless Bay” was causing confusion with another Witless Bay on the Avalon’s southern shore in the early 1900’s. More on premier Whiteway can be read here.
Population
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Whiteway had a population of 351 living in 136 of its 174 total private dwellings
Economy
Moses Drover started his sawmill in Whiteway around 1887 and the sawmill and workshop operated until his grandson’s Walter and Frank passed away in 1956 and 1962 respectively. Shipping shingles from Drover’s Sawmill changed over time. In the early years, Moses shipped his shingles and dressed lumber from his sawmill to market by schooner.
Shingles were produced in the mill, then wheeled via a cart to the beach and loaded onto his schooner the William. A bridge was built over the mouth of the brook and became known as the cart bridge. Many of the local residents found employment in this sawmill while others made their living from the sea.
Burgess Heritage Property
The Burgess Property is a collection of wood-framed buildings comprising a house, stable and store, sawmill, root cellar, and fishing stage straddling Burgess Lane and Route 80 in Whiteway, NL. The designation encompasses all named buildings.The Burgess Property was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2020 due to its historic and aesthetic value.
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- Burgess Property
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- Burgess Property
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- Drover Sawmill
The Burgess Property is a collection of structures built and operated by the Burgess family over six generations. The arrangement of the property’s component buildings speaks to settlement patterns in the late 1800s while the structures themselves are good examples of both residential and working buildings of the period.
Read more here from Heritage NL
There is a Facebook page dedicated to memories of days past in Whiteway called Whiteway Memories
