Whitehouse, New Jersey

Whitehouse, New Jersey
Unincorporated community
Whitehouse United Methodist Church
Whitehouse Whitehouse Whitehouse
Coordinates: 40°37′06″N 74°44′40″W / 40.61833°N 74.74444°WCoordinates: 40°37′06″N 74°44′40″W / 40.61833°N 74.74444°W
Country	United States
State	New Jersey
County	Hunterdon
Township	Readington
Elevation	210 ft (64 m)
ZIP Code	08889
Area code(s)	908
GNIS feature ID	0881798[1]

Posts at DAR cemetery using stone from the Van Horn tavern

Whitehouse is an unincorporated community located within Readington Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States.^[2] The community lies along the Jersey Turnpike, just west of Mechanicsville.

In 1722, Abraham Van Horne purchased 490 acres (2.0 km²) 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.

The Whitehouse-Mechanicsville Historic District, which includes historic places in both Whitehouse and Mechanicsville, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 2015.^[5]

References

1. "Whitehouse". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
2. Locality Search, State of New Jersey. Accessed June 9, 2016.
3. Van Horn, Paul E. "Abraham Van Horn, Owner, White House Tavern" Accessed December 10, 2009.
4. 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, 1868.
5. "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Hunterdon County" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. August 22, 2016. p. 13.