Whitewright, TX

Whitewright is a town in Fannin and Grayson counties, 12 miles southeast of Sherman, with 1,725 residents in the 2020 census. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad reached the site in 1878, and the new town took the name of railroad backer William Whitewright. Fires in 1904 and 1911 nearly destroyed the business district; residents rebuilt it, and the First National Bank building at 100 West Grand still recalls the 1911 fire. The old center remains the town's commercial map, even though passenger trains no longer stop there. Whitewright's chamber calendar brings downtown trick-or-treat and fall-festival activity back to the main-street blocks, while Whitewright ISD serves local students. The town still works as a marketing center for the surrounding Grayson County farm country. Whitewright is a railroad-founded North Texas town whose downtown has had to come back from fire twice.