The Somerville and Easton Railroad first reached the rural community of White House in 1848, and a modest depot was built to shelter travelers waiting for the stagecoach. By 1860, a small community called White House Station had grown around the depot. In 1849, the Somerville and Easton Railroad was renamed the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and as freight and passenger traffic increased at White House Station, now a junction stop, the company commissioned noted architect Bradford L. Gilbert to design a new station in the popular Victorian Richardsonian Romanesque style, with a heavy rough-cut stone exterior, broad roof planes, deeply recessed arched window and door openings, and varied shapes and forms including the polygonal porch on the front of the building. In the 1880s, as farming became an important industry in Hunterdon County, the Rockaway Valley Railroad was built in 1888 to speed produce shipments to the New York market, extending thirteen miles from White House Station to Morristown and earning the affectionate nickname Rockabye Baby because of its bumpy ride. Through citizen initiative and the NJ TRANSIT Station Leasing Program, the station was restored to its original grandeur, and on December 7, 1981, after seven months of dedicated community effort, White House Station opened as Readington Township's first public library. White House Station was listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1984.