Now that construction of the Lakeside Apartments is completed and graduate students and their families are moving into the new complex on Faculty Road, Princeton University is preparing to demolish the Butler Tract apartments on Harrison Street. The barracks-like development, which was built as temporary housing after World War II but served for almost 70 years as a home for graduate students, will finally meet the wrecking ball in early fall.

To address concerns about the demolition and maintenance of the 33-acre site, which is bordered by Hartley Avenue, Sycamore Road, Longview Drive, and South Harrison Street, the University is holding a neighborhood meeting Thursday, July 30 at Lewis Library on the campus, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Members of the project team will be on hand to answer questions.

“We’re giving them a forum to ask any questions they might have,” said Kristin Appelget, the University’s director of community and regional affairs. “We’ve sent out a number of letters to neighbors letting them know the project is getting started.”

One neighbor, Sally Goldfarb, has been particularly concerned about effects of the demolition. She lives directly across Sycamore Street from the site. “When the buildings are torn down, this will become one of the largest vacant parcels in Princeton,” she said. “The demolition process itself raises serious questions about environmental safety. Due to the age of the buildings, it is likely they contain asbestos and lead paint.”

Ms. Appelget said asbestos is anticipated and precautions will be taken. “As with any older construction, we expect asbestos. All remediation work will precede any demolition,” she said, adding that there are no oil tanks on the property.

The plan is for existing roads to stay in place after the demolition, Ms. Appelget said. Wood stockade fencing will remain, and gates will be installed at entrances and exits to the site so cars cannot drive through. “It will take us until next spring to complete,” she said. “It will be done slowly and carefully. Once the ground thaws, where the existing apartment buildings are, all will be regraded and we will plant a variety of meadow mixes. It will be left open.”

There is no current plan to build at the site. Its future is being considered as part of the University’s ongoing 2026 campus planning effort. In the short term, the school plans to use the area for intermittent overflow event parking.

This worries Ms. Goldfarb. “They have announced they are planning to leave the land vacant after they remove the buildings, but they are currently planning to leave the roads, sidewalks and streetlights in place,” she said. “As a result, this will become a  big, unsightly vacant lot in the middle of a residential neighborhood.”

Ms. Goldfarb thinks the best solution is to remove the roads and fence around the perimeter and turn the land into an open field, “like the fields on Broadmead,” she said. “Currently the University is not planning to pursue that option. Instead, they are proposing to leave it in this rather unsightly state and maintain the fencing.”

The Butler Tract first opened at Christmas, 1946, on what was formerly the University’s polo field. As a child, renowned author and Princeton professor John McPhee watched construction of Butler, saying farewell to “polo — yes, the whole chukker, students in jodphurs, the horse latitudes,” according to The Princeton Alumni Weekly. At first, the small frame houses served as home to married returnees from World War II. But from the 1960s on, Butler has been graduate student territory.

Butler apartments came in two sizes: 670 and 454 square feet. The complex offered the cheapest campus housing: $40 a month in 1950, $110 in 1980, and $828 in 2013, according to the alumni magazine. Stories about leaky floors, faulty heating, and paper-thin walls are legend, but former residents have been known to express nostalgia for their years in the development.

Once the buildings start to come down, the University will continue to monitor the site “regularly, both during and after the demolition” according to a letter the University sent to neighbors who live within 200 feet of the site.

“The University said they’ll maintain some patrols but clearly they will be intermittent, and that’s not sufficient,” said Ms. Goldfarb. “To have a lot surrounded by fencing where no one can see what’s going on inside is a potential magnet for undesirable activity. I don’t think any urban planner would advocate such a plan.”

Demolition will be carried out in stages and will take place over several months, according to Ms. Appelget. Some trees that could become unstable will be taken down. “We will use this as an opportunity to look at trees on the full site, some of which are in decline,” she said.

The neighborhood meeting is Thursday, July 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Lewis Library Bowl 138, at the corner of Ivy Lane and Washington Road. Parking is available in the University lots on Ivy Lane, across from Lewis Library.