The Princeton Historic District is a historic district located in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

that was listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1975. It stretches from Marquand Park in the west to the Eating Clubs in the East, from the

Princeton Cemetery Princeton Cemetery is located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It is owned by the Nassau Presbyterian Church. John F. Hageman in his 1878 history of Princeton, New Jersey refers to the cemetery as "The Westminster Abbey of the United Stat ...

in the north to the Graduate College in the south. The district encompasses the core parts of the campuses of the

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. It also includes the business district centered on Nassau Street and many historic homes, both mansions in the western section and more humble dwellings in the Witherspoon/Jackson neighborhood. Notable churches within the district include Nassau Presbyterian Church, Trinity Episcopal,

Nassau Christian Center The Nassau Christian Center is an Assemblies of God church in Princeton, New Jersey located at 26 Nassau Street. It is housed in an historic church building built in 1868 that was once home to Princeton's Second Presbyterian Church, later known ...

, and the

Princeton University Chapel The Princeton University Chapel is located on that university's main campus in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It replaces an older chapel that burned down in 1920. Designed in 1921 by Ralph Adams Cram in his signature Collegiate Gothic styl ...

. The district is home to seven of Princeton's nine, and New Jersey's fifty-eight,

National Historic Landmarks A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

, the largest concentration of such sites in the state.

Significance

Charles Willson Peale - George Washington at the Battle of Princeton - Google Art Project

Princeton, and the world-renowned University to which it is home, has played a significant role in 300 years of American history. Not only does the town have a strong architectural heritage, it has also made notable contributions to the world of politics, religion, science, and literature. Princeton's first settlers came in the 1690s, with

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

settling along the Stony Brook, and the Kingston Mill being built along the

Millstone River The Millstone River is a tributary of the Raritan River in central New Jersey in the United States.Gertler, Edward. ''Garden State Canoeing'', Seneca Press, 2002. The Millstone River begins in western Monmouth County and flows westward throu ...

. The town itself grew up in the early 18th century along an old

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

trail which became Nassau Street. The College of New Jersey, which became Princeton University in 1896, was founded in 1746 and moved to Princeton ten years later on the completion of

Nassau Hall Nassau Hall, colloquially known as Old Nassau, is the oldest building at Princeton University in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. In 1783 it served as the United States Capitol building for four months. At the time it was built ...

. The town sent two residents to sign the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

, Richard Stockton and

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense real ...

. A third former resident,

Joseph Hewes Joseph Hewes (July 9, 1730– November 10, 1779) was an American Founding Father, a signer of the Continental Association and U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a native of Princeton, New Jersey, where he was born in 1730. Hewes's parents were ...

, whose house,

Maybury Hill Maybury Hill is a historic house at 346 Snowden Lane, in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Built about 1725, it was the birthplace and boyhood home of Joseph Hewes (1730-1799), a signer of the United States Declaration of In ...

, is a national historic landmark in Princeton that lies outside the historic district, also was a signer. The town was occupied by the British during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, using Bainbridge House as their headquarters. After his famous crossing of the Delaware and victory at the Battle of Trenton,

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

led the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

to victory at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. Nassau Hall itself served as the capital of the United States in the summer of 1783 and George Washington received the nation's thanks there. Princeton was home to four presidents,

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...

and

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

as students, the later also as university president,

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

in the years after he left the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

, and

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

during his freshman year, before his transfer to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Aaron Burr, Jr. was a student here before being

Vice-President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice pr ...

and is buried in the

at the feet of his more highly esteemed father, Aaron Burr, Sr., and theologian grandfather, Jonathan Edwards. Many architects from

Benjamin Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in t ...

and Ralph Adams Cram to

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

and Frank Gehry have left their mark on the town. As home to the oldest

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Theological Seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

, Princeton has been host to many important theologians from

Archibald Alexander Archibald Alexander (April 17, 1772 – October 22, 1851) was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He served for 9 years as the President of Hampden–Sydney College in Virginia and for 39 yea ...

and Samuel Miller to Charles Hodge and B.B. Warfield. Joseph Henry brought Princeton first to prominence as a center of science, a legacy that led

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

to make Princeton's

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

his home after he fled Germany in 1933. Princeton has also been home to writers as varied as

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in seve ...

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

, and

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

Contributing properties

National Historic Landmarks

Independently listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Other significant contributing properties

References