Whitehaven began as the main part of a two-story brick house built in the 1860s by Edward Anderson. Edward Atkins bought it in 1903 and had Paducah architect A.L. Lassiter transform the Victorian farmhouse into a Classical Revival mansion, adding the Corinthian-columned front portico and naming the house Whitehaven. In 1908, Paducah Mayor James P. Smith bought the home and renamed it Bide-A-Wee, a Scottish adage meaning "Come Rest A While." Members of the Smith family lived there until 1968. After restoration, the mansion opened on June 23, 1983, as the Whitehaven Tourist Welcome Center and was listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 1984.