The College of New Jersey did not have a permanent home and was not even located in Princeton until a decade after its charter was signed in 1746.  The first students met in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the parsonage of the first president, Reverend Jonathan Dickinson.  Upon Dickinson’s death a mere five months later, the College was moved to the home of its new president, Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr. in Newark.  The trustees wanted to settle the College in a location “more sequestered from the various temptations attending a promiscuous converse with the world, that theatre of folly and dissipation—and one nearer the center of the province.”  In 1753, New Jersey Governor Jonathan Belcher recommended the village of Princeton, where townspeople were willing to meet the trustees’ requests for donations of 10 clear acres of land, 200 acres of wood lots for fuel, and 1,000 pounds of New Jersey currency.  The excellent site fronted on the King’s Highway (a major colonial thoroughfare known today as Nassau Street) at precisely halfway between New York City and Philadelphia.  Construction on Nassau Hall began in July 1754 and was completed two years later, resulting in the largest academic building in all the colonies.  Nassau Hall held all of the school’s facilities for 50 years and soon came to play a large role in the founding of the new nation.  This topographic map, drawn in 1781 by Captain Louis-Alexandre Berthier to depict an encampment of the Continental Army’s Soissonais Regiment led by the French General Rochambeau, demonstrates both the dominance and isolation of the College building within the tiny village.

• To learn more about Princeton’s founding, see quotation #35 and Café Vivian picture #19 and 27.
  
  
• To learn more about Jonathan Belcher, see quotation #35 and Café Vivian picture #19 and 86.
  
  
• To learn more about Princeton University presidents, see quotation #9, 11, 33, and 41, and Café Vivian picture #40, 95, 98, 105, 113, 122, and 125.
  
  
• To learn more about Princeton trustees, see icon #5, quotation #7, 10, and 14, and Café Vivian picture #16, 18, 19, 27, 92, 101, 108, 111, and 123. 
  
  
• To learn more about Nassau Hall, see icon #1, quotation #1 and 35, and Café Vivian picture #4, 20, 75, 92, and 95.
  
  
• To learn more about Princeton in the nation’s history, see quotation #11 and Café Vivian picture #20, 83, 92, 95, and 113.
  
  
• To learn more about campus grounds and buildings, see icon #1, 5, and 8, quotation #5, 7, 9, 28, and 39, and Café Vivian picture #4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 16, 20, 25, 30, 37, 40, 46, 48, 54, 58, 61, 62, 67, 68, 71, 78, 85, 87, 95, 100, 101, 102, 104, 105, 108, 109, 111, 118, 124, 127, and 133.

CLOSE