Institute for Advanced Study

The Mercer Oak was a large white oak tree that stood in Princeton Battlefield State Park in Princeton, New Jersey. The tree was about 300 years old when it was torn by strong winds in March 2000. It was the emblem of Princeton Township and appeared on the seal of the township. The tree is also the key element of the seal of Mercer County, New Jersey. The Mercer Oak was named after Hugh Mercer, a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. During the Battle of Princeton, Mercer was stabbed by an English soldier's bayonet. According to legend, he was unwilling to abandon his troops, and rested on the tree's trunk while they stood their ground. After the battle, Mercer was taken to the Clarke House where he died from his injuries nine days later. After a lightning storm in 1973 dropped a large branch of the original "Mercer Oak," Ned Brown, a local artisan cabinet fabricator from Skillman, NJ, had the insight to preserve some of the lumber. Pieces of the preserved lumber were later integrated into the woodwork of a local restaurant. The inlay includes the craftsman's representation of a silhouette of the oak tree, as well as sections of oak throughout the bar. The balance of the fallen branches were left in the hands of Princeton's Historical Society. On March 3, 2000, a wind storm felled the oak's last four branches. For public safety reasons, arborists cut off the remnants of the trunk the day after the tree fell. Following the tree's death, several scions from the tree were planted around the battlefield. In May 2000, an 8-foot sapling grown from a Mercer Oak acorn was planted inside the stump of the former tree.

The Battle of Princeton was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought near Princeton, New Jersey on January 3, 1777, and ending in a small victory for the Colonials. General Lord Cornwallis had left 1,400 British troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood in Princeton. Following a surprise attack at Trenton early in the morning of December 26, 1776, General George Washington of the Continental Army decided to attack the British in New Jersey before entering the winter quarters. On December 30, he crossed the Delaware River back into New Jersey. His troops followed on January 3, 1777. Washington advanced to Princeton by a back road, where he pushed back a smaller British force but had to retreat before Cornwallis arrived with reinforcements. The battles of Trenton and Princeton were a boost to the morale of the patriot cause, leading many recruits to join the Continental Army in the spring. After defeating the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776, Washington withdrew back to Pennsylvania. He subsequently decided to attack the British forces before going into winter quarters. On December 29, he led his army back into Trenton. On the night of January 2, 1777, Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek. That night, he evacuated his position, circled around General Cornwallis' army, and went to attack the British garrison at Princeton. On January 3, Brigadier General Hugh Mercer of the Continental Army clashed with two regiments under the command of Mawhood. Mercer and his troops were overrun, and Mercer was mortally wounded. Washington sent a brigade of militia under Brigadier General John Cadwalader to help them. The militia, on seeing the flight of Mercer's men, also began to flee. Washington rode up with reinforcements and rallied the fleeing militia. He then led the attack on Mawhood's troops, driving them back. Mawhood gave the order to retreat, and most of the troops tried to flee to Cornwallis in Trenton. In Princeton, Brigadier General John Sullivan encouraged some British troops who had taken refuge in Nassau Hall to surrender, ending the battle. After the battle, Washington moved his army to Morristown, and with their third defeat in 10 days, the British evacuated Central Jersey. The battle (while considered minor by British standards) was the last major action of Washington's winter New Jersey campaign.

The Princeton Battlefield in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States, is where American and British troops fought each other on January 3, 1777, in the Battle of Princeton during the American Revolutionary War. The battle ended when the British soldiers in Nassau Hall surrendered. This success, following those at the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, and the Battle of the Assunpink Creek the day before, helped improve American morale.

The Graduate College at Princeton University is a residential college which serves as the center of graduate student life at Princeton, separate from the seven undergraduate residential colleges. Wyman House, adjacent to the Graduate College, serves as the official residence of the current Dean of the Graduate School. Thomson College, the central quadrangle now commonly known as the Old Graduate College, is a memorial to United States Senator John R. Thomson 1817 provided by a bequest left by his widow, Mrs. J. A. W. Thomson Swann, the Graduate College's first benefactor.It was dedicated on October 22, 1913, during the tenure of the first dean of the Graduate School, Andrew Fleming West, and was the first residential college in the United States devoted solely to postgraduate liberal studies. The group of Collegiate Gothic buildings was designed by Ralph Adams Cram and located on a hill, one-half mile west of the main campus. Its most prominent architectural landmark is the 173-ft-high Cleveland Tower, which features one of the largest carillons in the United States. Cleveland Tower adjoins the Old Graduate College, which also includes Procter Hall, the Van Dyke Library, Pyne Tower, and North Court. In 1962, the New Graduate College (colloquially, "new GC") was built to expand the Old Graduate College to the south-west, although it features a more modern architectural style. The Graduate College currently houses approximately 430 graduate students, mostly in their first-year of graduate study. The Graduate College's Pyne Tower is also the home of the current administrator in residence. It has been featured in the films Admission and Runner Runner.

Drumthwacket ( DRUM-thwak-it) is the official residence of the governor of the U.S. state of New Jersey at 354 Stockton Street in Princeton, New Jersey, near the state capital of Trenton. The mansion was built in 1835 and expanded in 1893 and 1900. It was sold with its surrounding land to the state in 1966. Drumthwacket was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 10, 1975 for its significance in agriculture, architecture, commerce, landscape architecture, and politics. It was designated the governor's mansion in 1982. The estate is administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. It serves as the executive residence and is also a historic house museum.

Marquand Park is a 17-acre (69,000 m2) arboretum and recreational area located in Princeton, New Jersey. It contains walking paths, a baseball field, and attractions for children such as a sandbox and a play structure.

Stony Brook Meeting House and Cemetery are historic Quaker sites located at the Stony Brook Settlement at the intersection of Princeton Pike/Mercer Road and Quaker Road in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The first Europeans to settle in the Princeton area were six Quaker families who built their homes near the Stony Brook around 1696. In 1709 Benjamin Clark deeded nine and three-fifths acres in trust to Richard Stockton and others to establish a Friends meeting house and burial ground.

Princeton Friends School (PFS) is an independent Quaker day Kindergarten-8th grade school in Princeton, New Jersey. It is under the care of Princeton Monthly Meeting and located on the Meeting's historic Stony Brook Meeting House and Cemetery property, adjacent to both the Institute for Advanced Study Woods and the Princeton Battlefield. The school is governed by a board of trustees that includes members of the Religious Society of Friends, attenders of the Princeton Monthly Meeting, parents of students in the school, and members of the broader Princeton community.

The Albert Einstein House at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States was the home of Albert Einstein from 1935 until his death in 1955. His second wife Elsa Einstein died in 1936 while living in this house.

The Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. '70 College is one of the seven residential colleges that house all freshmen and sophomores at Princeton University. One of the two first residential colleges at Princeton (along with Mathey College), it was originally called Princeton Inn College after the former hotel where it is housed. Following a gift to the school by Malcolm S. Forbes Sr. '41 in 1984 in honor of his son, Steve, the college was renamed Forbes. Steve's daughter, Catherine Forbes '99, was a member of Forbes College while attending Princeton.

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 the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), it is the second-oldest seminary in the United States. It is also the largest of ten seminaries associated with the Presbyterian Church. Princeton Seminary has had many biblical scholars, theologians, and clergy among its faculty and alumni. In addition, it operates a large theological library and maintains a number of special collections, including the Karl Barth Research Collection in the Center for Barth Studies. The seminary also manages an endowment of $1.459 billion in 2022, making it the third-wealthiest institution of higher learning in the state of New Jersey—after Princeton University and Rutgers University.In the 1980s, Princeton Seminary enrolled about 900 students but today, the seminary enrolls approximately 333 students. While around 26 percent of them are candidates for ministry specifically in the Presbyterian Church, the majority are completing such candidature in other denominations, pursuing careers in academia across a number of different disciplines, or receiving training for other, non-theological fields altogether.Seminarians hold academic reciprocity with Princeton University as well as the Westminster Choir College of Rider University, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Jewish Theological Seminary, and the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. The institution also has an ongoing relationship with the Center of Theological Inquiry.

Princeton is the northern terminus of the Princeton Branch commuter rail service operated by NJ Transit (NJT), and is located on the Princeton University campus in Princeton, New Jersey. At the branch's southern end at Princeton Junction, connections are available to NJT's Northeast Corridor Line and peak-hour Amtrak trains. The shuttle train between the two stations is known as the "Dinky", and has also been known as the "PJ&B", for "Princeton Junction and Back". Now running 2.7 mi (4.3 km) along a single track, it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the United States. Initial studies have been conducted to add a bus transitway along the Dinky right-of-way as part of a proposed bus rapid transit system. Service on the Princeton Branch was suspended from October 14, 2018 through May 11, 2019, replaced by shuttle buses, as part of NJT's systemwide service reductions during the installation and testing of positive train control.Plans to relocate Princeton station 460 ft (140 m) south, proposed by the university in 2006 and approved by NJT and the Princeton Regional Planning Board, were met with opposition from some commuters, residents, alumni, and transportation advocates. The historic 1918 train station closed permanently on August 23, 2013. Approximately 1,200 ft (370 m) to the southeast, a temporary station operated from August 26, 2013 through November 9, 2014, accompanied by various bus routes shuttling among the old station, the temporary station, and Princeton Junction. The new permanent Princeton station, designed by architect Rick Joy, opened on November 17, 2014, with construction continuing on a complex of arts and dining buildings in the surrounding area.