Whitesboro, New York

Whitesboro, New York
Village
Commercial buildings in Whitesboro
Seal
Location in Oneida County and the state of New York.
Coordinates: 43°7′N 75°18′W / 43.117°N 75.300°W / 43.117; -75.300Coordinates: 43°7′N 75°18′W / 43.117°N 75.300°W / 43.117; -75.300
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Oneida
Founded by	Hugh White (New York)
Area
• Total	1.1 sq mi (2.8 km2)
• Land	1.1 sq mi (2.8 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	423 ft (129 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	3,772
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	13492
Area code(s)	315
FIPS code	36-81710
GNIS feature ID	0971160

Whitesboro is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 3,772 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Hugh White, an early settler who had been adopted into the Oneida tribe and built the first permanent settlement there in 1784-85.

The Village of Whitesboro is inside the Town of Whitestown.

The village was first settled circa 1784. The village was incorporated in 1813.

The older part of the village was bordered by the Erie Canal and the village's Main Street. When the canal was filled in the first half of the 20th century, Oriskany Boulevard was built over the filled-in canal. The streets that connect the two roads form the oldest part of the village.

Ice skating was once popular on the Erie Canal, and once covered with ice, the residents used the Flagg Street Playground in the winter to ice skate. The fire department in the 1950s-1980s would spray water on a large area of the several acre playground, and most of the village would come out and skate. A large portion of the village would participate. In the early 1980s, the skating was stopped for insurance reasons.

The Whitestown Town Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

The Whitesboro seal, originating in the early 1900s, displays founder Hugh White wrestling an Oneida Native American. The seal has been controversial because it has been interpreted as a settler choking the Native American; city officials contend it depicts a friendly wrestling match that White won, gaining the respect of the Oneida. The current version of the seal was created in 1970, after a lawsuit by a Native American group: the version used before the suit showed the settler's hands on the Native American's neck instead of his shoulders.

The seal attracted more controversy in 2016 when village residents voted 157 to 55 to keep the seal as-is rather than explore alternative images. On January 21, 2016, Patrick O'Connor, the mayor of Whitesboro, called Jessica Williams, a correspondent for The Daily Show, and told her that the town would change the seal.