Princeton University

Princeton University, Job #01169, Princeton, NJ

Olmsted Archives

Quick Facts

Location:

Princeton, NJ

Significance:

Olmsted Designed School

MANAGED BY:

Princeton University

In 1890, Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot were called to advise on the improvement of Princeton University, then called College of New Jersey. Creating a general plan for the campus, they focused on grading the land around existing buildings. In a letter to Moses Taylor Pyne, one of Princeton’s greatest benefactors and most influential trustees, John Charles Olmsted wrote that “The intention is to have long, graceful, easy slopes, nowhere steeper than would be practicable to walk upon, and leaving an ample breadth of nearly level ground all around the building, so that it will appear to have been placed upon a natural plateau.”

Source: "Princeton University," Olmsted Online

For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr