Oklahoma history does not survive only in museums. Sometimes it survives under later siding, above old brick piers, inside family photograph boxes and in a house that people simply kept using.
A house from before statehood
The Whiteman family dates the home to 1893. An Oklahoma Historical Society archival photograph independently identifies the W. J. Whiteman home as built before 1907.
Goodwater is part of the story
William Jourdan Whiteman settled at Goodwater in 1893. Mattie Josephine Harris Whiteman was a Choctaw citizen by blood and daughter of Henry C. Harris.
Preservation is different from remodeling
Preservation asks what survives, what is significant, what must be stabilized and what should be documented before intervention.
A living preservation project
The house remains a private residence. The project is documenting its history, physical fabric and family archive while raising money toward responsible preservation.