According to the parks department:

The opening of the rails that went through Hanover Junction was celebrated
on Oct. 22, 1852. The tracks connected the towns of Hanover and Gettysburg
to the Northern Central Railway, which ran north-south from Sunbury to
Baltimore.

The railroad also transported ore from several area mines, the closest of
which is located in Joseph Raab County Park near Jefferson.

The Hanover Junction station was raided by Confederate cavalry on June 27,
1863, several days before the Battle of Gettysburg. The telegraph wires were
cut and railroad bridges over the Codorus Creek, above and below the
junction, were burned. The railroad station was left intact.

From 1852 until 1929, the first floor housed a Northern Central and Hanover
Branch ticket office, a Western Union telegraph office, a waiting room for
passengers and private rooms where the station master and his family lived.

From 1852 until 1877, 10 small rooms on the third floor served as a hotel.
After 1877, one of these rooms served as a blacksmith shop and the others
were used for storage or to house track workers.

In 1928, the west rails were removed, and in 1929 the ticket office was
closed. The building was re-opened to the public in 2001.