CLARKE HOUSE, PRINCETON NEW JERSEY

The Thomas Clarke House in Princeton New Jersey is starting to have problems. The house, built in 1772, is a white clapboard farm house. The structure is central to the Battle of Princeton fought on January 3rd 1777 between Crown forces and the Continental Army under the command of General George Washington.



The house also became hospital after the battle taking in both British and American wounded. American General Hugh Mercer died here nine days after the battle from being shot and bayoneted.


After two hundred years, the wooden house shows signs of rot.
The rot is especially evident around the windows.


Near the foundation, the rot is also evident.

The shutters, doors, threshold and steps also need work.

Lots of work!

Boards are popping.

Close ups show how much scrapping and painting is needed, but wood replacement is not always so easy to see.

The front steps are not safe!

More wood rot that is clear to see.

The second floor shutters need replacement.

Please help with donations, so that matching grants can be attained.

Please help the Princeton Batlefield Society with donations to help save the Clarke House:

http://saveprincetonbattlefield.org/

SAVE PRINCETON BATTLEFIELD

The beginning of the July 4th festivities. A nice crowd showed through out the day for the various demonstrations and to tour the Clarke House.

I went down to Princeton on July 4th for the battleground festivities. The day was beautiful and the crowd wonderful. They had a good time as did I, until they learned about the planned construction on the battlefield. This was the reason I went, to learn more about this possibility.

I saw an overhead picture of the battlefield, both the State owned part and the part owned by the Institute of Advanced Studies. On this picture was the grid work of the study showing the artifacts found. The Institute plans to build here, it is damning.

I got very excited about this. The loss of this piece of my heritage seems outrageous to me. On July 4th, I decided to join the group to fight this construction, to preserve the battlefield and preserve the Clarke House on the battlefield. I hope you will help too.
You help a little by e-mailing the men below. Help a little more by writing them a letter or alot by joining the Princeton Battlefield Society.

http://www.saveprincetonbattlefield.org/statePark/instituteThreat.htm

So in a nutshell, a portion of the Princeton Battlefield is in danger of being bulldozed. The battlefield, once a mile and a half long is down to 120 acres. 22 of those acres are owned by the Institute of Advances Studies. The Institute wants to build 14 houses on eight acres of this land for their professors.

It is a fine institution, but with this construction, it is making a mistake and trampling on our heritage. It is working quietly behind the scenes to accomplish this. This is ill advised!

What I am asking is that you e-mail or write or both the Chairman of the Board and the Director of the Institute your displeasure at the proposed construction. Further, that you contact other people to do the same. You see, both men are mathematicians by trade and numbers count!

Please write!

The National Trust for Historic Preservation just wrote an article on the battlefield, check it out.

The website is http://www.nthp.org/. The article will come up as one of the scrolling images in the center of the page.


"Don't Build on the Battlefield, Preserve Princeton Battlefield"
"Save George Washington"

Thanks,

Joe Carney


Charles Simonyi
Chairman of the Board
Institute of Advanced Studies
http://us.mc463.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=info@intentsoft.com
2821 Northup Way, Suite 250
Bellevue, WA 98004
----------------------------------------------
Peter Goddard
Director
Institute of Advanced Studies
http://us.mc463.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=pgoddard@ias.edu
Einstein Drive
Princeton NJ, 08540

There are also other Trustees to e-mail, please do!

Peter Kane

prk2106@columbia.edu

M. Gehret

mgehret@ias.edu

W. Sewell

wsewell@uchicago.edu