Princeton College burnt!

Princeton NJ -- Local resident Jim Firestone (right) recently donated to the University his copy of the March 9, 1802, issue of The True American, a Trenton newspaper that includes an account of the March 6, 1802, fire that destroyed all but the outside walls of Nassau Hall.

He presented the newspaper to Ben Primer (left), associate University librarian and University archivist, and Robert Durkee, vice president for public affairs (center), in Nassau Hall's Faculty Room on the 200th anniversary of the fire. "Princeton College burnt!" screams the headline, and the story goes on to describe the event: "The wind blew extremely high, which rendered every exertion to assault or extinguish the flames ineffectual. In two hours from the time it was discovered on fire, the whole building, walls excepted, was reduced to ashes together with most of the books belonging to the several libraries, many of the personal effects of the students, etc."

Primer said the University library has some accounts of the fire, but not this particular newspaper, which Firestone said he bought at a flea market 25 years ago. Primer pointed out that the town of Princeton had no fire department at the time to fight the blaze, but came through afterward by providing $5,000 to help rebuild Nassau Hall. "I'm not sure the college would have survived without the town stepping up," he said. The newspaper will be housed in Seeley Mudd Manuscript Library.
 

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March 25, 2002
Vol. 91, No. 20
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