Princeton is a small friendly town with plenty of academic and cultural sophistication. Princeton University's ivied walls dominate one side of the town's main street, with Nassau Hall, briefly the capital of the US, lying directly in front of the towns commercial center of Palmer Square. Here one finds a string of bustling businesses, quaint shops. eateries, and the historic Nassau Inn, once a stagecoach stop between Philadelphia and New York. Princeton is home to many historic sites, the McCarter Theater reportedly the seventh busiest performing arts center in the nation, the Princeton Ballet, the Princeton Arts Council, the Westminster Choir College and the Princeton Pro Musica. Princeton has miles of charming, tree lined residential streets offering a variety of housing including Victorian homes, stone and mortar structures, single family homes, townhouses and duplexes. Princeton has been home to famous people including Albert Einstein, Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland and more recently Toni Morrison and John Chancellor. Also in the Borough are the Institute for Advanced Study, the Princeton Theological Seminary, American Boychoir School and an excellent Medical Center.
Historic Districts in Princeton Borough
Jugtown District-
Located at the intersection of Nassau and Harrison Streets, this area was originally settled in 1695. By the early-eighteenth century, Jugtown had become a thriving hamlet of houses, stores, a hotel, and a pottery works, from which the neighborhood derives its name. The district's beginnings are visible in the modest brick dwellings of the eighteenth century, which were joined later by elegant wood-framed Federal-style dwellings with delicate carved wood details and fanlights. During the nineteenth century, the neighborhood came to include houses in a wider variety of architectural styles. Queen Anne and Colonial Revival dwellings of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century completed the district.Bank Street District-Tucked away along narrow Bank Street is a collection of vernacular Queen Anne-style buildings that form a cohesive and well-preserved residential district. Constructed in the late-nineteenth century as modest residences, these wood-framed dwellings gather close to the street and to one another. These houses feature a variety of Victorian decoration. Wood shingles in fanciful diamond and fish-scale patterns cover them, decorative brackets adorn the buildings' two-story cutaway bay windows, and wood porches with turned wood posts and spindle valances welcome visitors.
Mercer Hill District-
Primarily residential in character, this elegant district includes the Albert Einstein house, Morven, a number of dwellings designed by Princeton's noted architect-builder, Charles Steadman, and clusters of Victorian houses. Landmark buildings in the district include Trinity Church and Princeton Theological Seminary's Alexander Hall. A variety of architectural styles is present here, with houses executed in the Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival styles.
Central Historic District-
This district encompasses the core of the central business district and several Princeton University buildings that front onto Nassau Street. Its buildings represent diverse periods and architectural styles from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. Located amid the district's eighteenth-century Nassau Hall, Bainbridge House, and MacLean House are the Greek Revival Nassau Presbyterian Church, the Tudor Revival Lower Pyne, and the Collegiate Gothic Madison and Holder Halls. The commercial buildings along Nassau Street demonstrate an array of historical styles, including Federal, Second Empire, Renaissance Revival, and the Colonial Revival of Palmer Square.
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