Guide Exploring Princeton, New Jersey | SolarTravels.com

<body> Destination Guides Search for a City Destination Guides > North America > USA > Mid-Atlantic > New Jersey > Inland New Jersey > Princeton Princeton Travel Options Flights Hotels Vacation Rentals Cars • Princeton · The Town And The University • Arrival, Information And Getting Around • Accommodation, Eating And Drinking • Hotels in Princeton PRINCETON BE THERE NOW Hotels in Princeton • Amerisuites - Princeton (Carnegie) Princeton from $189.00 USD • Hyatt Regency Princeton Princeton from $129.00 USD • The Westin Princeton At Forrestal Village Princeton from $239.00 USD More Hotels in Princeton >> Vacation Rentals in Princeton • Inn At Glencairn Princeton from $155.00 USD More Vacation Rentals in Princeton >> READ IT HERE Self-satisfied PRINCETON , on US-206 eleven miles north of Trenton, is home to Princeton University - the nation's fourth oldest, which broke away from the overly religious Yale in 1756. It began its days inauspiciously as Stony Brook in the late 1600s and then in 1724 became known as Princes Town, a coach stop between New York and Philadelphia. In January 1777, a week after Washington's triumph against the British at Trenton, the Battle of Princeton occurred southwest of town. This victory, a turning point in the Revolutionary effort, bolstered the morale of Washington's troops before their long winter encampment at Morristown to the north. After the war, in 1783, the Continental Congress , fearful of potential attack from incensed unpaid veterans in Philadelphia, met here for four months; the leafy, well-kept town was then left in peace to follow its academic pursuits. Graduates of the university include actor James Stewart, jazz-age writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and presidents Wilson and Madison. Today, there is little to do in this sleepy place other than tour the university and see the historic sites. The town and the university Mercer Street , the long road that sweeps southwest past the university campus to Nassau Street, is lined with elegant colonial houses, graced with shutters, columns and wrought-iron fences. The Princeton Battlefield State Park , a mile... Mercer Street , the long road that sweeps southwest past the university campus to Nassau Street, is lined with elegant colonial houses, graced with shutters, columns and wrought-iron fences. The Princeton Battlefield State Park , a mile out, includes the Thomas Clarke House , 500 Mercer St, a Quaker farmhouse that served as a hospital during the battle (park open daily dawn to dusk, house open Wed-Sat 10am-noon & 1-4pm, Sun 1-4pm; free; tel 609/921-0074). The simple house at 112 Mercer St, back toward town, is where Albert Einstein lived while teaching at the Institute of Advanced Study (however, it is not open to the public). Princeton University's tranquil and shaded campus is a beautiful place for a stroll. Just inside the main gates on Nassau Street, Nassau Hall (tours Mon-Sat 10am, 11am, 1.30pm & 3.30pm, Sun 1.30pm & 3.30pm; free; tel 609/258-3606) was, when constructed in 1756, the largest stone building in the nation; its 26-inch-thick walls (now patterned with plaques and patches of ivy placed by graduating classes) withstood American and British fire during the Revolution. It was also the seat of government during Princeton's brief spell as national capital. The 1925 chapel , based on one at Kings College, Cambridge University, in England, has stained-glass windows showing scenes from works by Dante, Shakespeare and Milton, as well as the Bible, and the Prospect Gardens, a flowerbed in the shape of the university emblem, are a blaze of orange in summer. In the middle of the campus, fronted by the Picasso sculpture Head of a Woman , the University Art Museum , not included on the standard tours, is well worth a look for its collection from the Renaissance to the present, including Modigliani, Van Gogh and Warhol, and Chinese and pre-Columbian art (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; tel 609/452-3787; free). While Princeton has found itself acting as a sanctuary and gathering place for exiled members of China's democracy movement since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, a substantial number of those who visit are disarmingly conservative prospective students and their proud parents, soaking up the tales of old-boy pranks and superstitions that prop up the Ivy League tradition. The student-led tours may be complacent, but they are free; they leave from the Frist Campus Center, facing Washington Road (Mon-Sat 10am, 11am, 1.30pm & 3.30pm, Sun 1.30pm & 3.30pm; tel 609/258-3603). </body>