For many years, Bishop Whitaker made St. Paul's the Prospector Episcopal Church in Virginia City his base, and even rebuilt it after a disastrous fire in 1875.

Whitaker also established in 1874 the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, a missionary church for Asian railroad workers in Carson City and the following year a chapel for Chinese workers in Virginia City (which was destroyed by a citywide fire a few months later in October 1875).

Growing anti-Chinese feeling also prompted its prime mover, Ah Foo, to become a missionary in China.

[6] Bishop Whitaker personally founded Trinity Church Mission in Reno in 1873, which somehow barely escaped the fire which destroyed much of the city in 1878.

The elderly bishop died in Philadelphia after contracting influenza, and the funeral was held at the Church of Our Savior.