To the Editor:
Testimony at the recent Planning Board hearings leaves little doubt that a significant part of the Battle of Princeton was fought on and around the spot where the Institute for Advanced Study proposes to build its condominiums for faculty housing. Princeton is not Europe, where nearly every plot of land was fought over at one time or another. American battlefields are thankfully few, and most of them have already been built on. Those whose terrain remains as it was on the day when the fighting took place are exceedingly rare; in New Jersey, Monmouth Battlefield is the only other field left undeveloped.
The justification the Institute has offered for its proposed development is that the atmosphere of its campus would be further enhanced by having additional members live there. While some sympathy might be in order, there are no professional reasons for building these condominiums.
Physicists and mathematicians have been walking across town to their offices for years. Among the members of the Institute itself, Einstein lived on Mercer Street, Von Neumann on Library Place, and Kurt Gödel on Linden Lane; none of them lived on the Institute grounds. They somehow managed anyway, and I am sure that the present and future members of the Institute will continue to thrive, both professionally and socially, even if their walk to work is longer than it might have been had this subdivision been approved.
Ken Fields
Linden Lane
For two hundred years, some of the greatest Princetonians made an extraordinary effort to preserve that Battlefield- most notably Moses Taylor Pyne, without whom it would have been a housing development in 1913. The IAS intends to reverse over 200 years of preservation so its faculty members can enjoy a nice view have two-car garages to park, as if Einstein would have been a better scientist if he drove a Cadillac.
And now we have a highly suspect battle study distorting history in an intentional effort to stop the housing. The entire affair is one of the greatest travesties in Princeton history.
Mr. Myers, I am not sure what you are saying here in your comments. It seems that the IAS is wrong for building on this parcel and the study is wrong for affirming what McPherson, Hackett-Fischer, Taylor-Pine and others have stated, that the counter-attack took place there.
Suffice it to say, we agree that the construction should not be approved. The travesty would be in it’s approval.
What I am saying is that the study remains to be proven- there are many who doubt its accuracy, and Moses Taylor-Pyne, the Clarke Family, the Olden Family, and many others always stated the counterattack took place between William and Thomas Clarke’s houses. The Battlefield Park was even preserved with that layout in mind, accepted by Douglas Freeeman, Wertenbaker. etc. David Fischer made conclusions in his book that are incompatible with the study, so he was either wrong then or wrong now. The study has yet to be subject to unrestricted peer-review- so far access has been selective.
Yes, the IAS housing will be a disaster for the Battlefield. We need not agree with the study to agree with that- neither should the Planning Board.
It would be wonderfull to have an archeological dig to find the artifacts connected to the battle. I am sure the underground patterns of impacted projectiles will support known positions and some yet to be fully understood. I think Monmouth had such a study done a few years ago. I know Little Big Horn had a study like that about ten years ago. The information gained and insights achieved were amazing. We need that too?
The Institute Housing will forever alter the character of the Battlefield and destroy archaeological ppotential; the PBPS is entirely correct that the IAS has not been forthright with acknowledging the archaeological potential of the site. Between 1959-63, the IAS virtually obliterated the site of William Clarke’s Farm where Mercer fought the 17th.
Please take a look at the Jan 6th Princeton Packet; I wrote a story concerning the Mercer Oak and included a 19th century photo of the Battlefield- the left-hand background includes the area where the IAS plans its housing. It is a compelling photo, one which helps show the effect the IAS housing will have on the Battlefield. My interpretation of the battle is the traditional one, but this should not effect the argument for its preservation.