Whitehouse, also spelled White House, is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
located within
Readington Township in
Hunterdon County, New Jersey. The community lies along the former Jersey Turnpike (now
U.S. Route 22), just west of
Mechanicsville. The
Whitehouse–Mechanicsville Historic District, which includes historic places in both Whitehouse and Mechanicsville, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on March 17, 2015.
History
In 1722, Abraham Van Horne purchased in Readington along the
Rockaway Creek. There, he built a grist mill and saw mill. Around 1750, he built a white plastered wall tavern on the creek where the
Jersey Turnpike crossed (this is now the corner of Washington Street and
U.S. Route 22). The tavern began to be referred to as the "White House" by travellers. The village, which sprang up to the east of the tavern also carried this name. Stones from the original tavern can be seen along the retaining wall of the
Daughters of the American Revolution cemetery, where the tavern once stood. The community of White House stretched along the Jersey Turnpike (now Route 22 and Old Route 28), which was the main street. The settlement included taverns, stores, grist mills, an academy, a Dutch Reformed Church and numerous houses.
[Barber, John Warner and Henry Howe. "Historical collections of the state of New Jersey: containing a general collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, etc. relating to its history and antiquities, with geographical descriptions of every township in the state". ]Indiana University Press
Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...
, 1868.
Nearby
Whitehouse Station, which also indirectly took the name from the tavern, was not built up until 1848 when an extension of the
Somerville and Easton Railroad was built.
Gallery
File:Memorial Park Cemetery, Whitehouse, NJ - entrance gate.jpg, Entrance to Memorial Park Cemetery
File:Memorial Park Cemetery, Whitehouse, NJ - Abraham Van Horne markers.jpg, Monument to Abraham Van Horne and his son Abraham
References
External links
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Unincorporated communities in Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Unincorporated communities in Readington Township, New Jersey
Unincorporated communities in New Jersey