About Princeton

Princeton, New Jersey is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey. Princeton University has been sited in the community since 1756. Although Princeton is a “college town”, there are other important institutions in the area, including the Institute for Advanced Study, Educational Testing Service (ETS), Opinion Research Corporation, Siemens Corporate Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sarnoff Corporation, FMC Corporation, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Amrep, Church and Dwight, Berlitz International and Dow Jones & Company.

The community is roughly equidistant between New York and Philadelphia. Princeton has been home to New York commuters (via Princeton Junction) since the end of World War II. The community is close to many major highways that can take residents to both cities.

While the Amtrak ride time is similar to each city, the commuter train ride to New York – via New Jersey Transit’s Northeast corridor Line – is generally much shorter than the equivalent train ride to Philadelphia, which involves a transfer to SEPTA trains in Trenton. Princeton receives some TV and radio broadcasts from both cities.

New Jersey’s capital is the city of Trenton, but the Governor’s official residence has been in Princeton since 1945, when Morven in the borough became the first Governor’s mansion. It was later replaced by the larger Drumthwacket, a colonial mansion located in the township. Morven became a museum property of the New Jersey Historical Society.

Princeton was named #15 of the top 100 towns in the United States to ‘Live and Work In’ by Money Magazine in 2005.

Although residents of Princeton (Princetonians) traditionally have a strong community-wide identity, the community is composed of two separate municipalities: a township and a borough.

The central borough is completely surrounded by the township. The Borough seceded from the Township in 1894 in a dispute over school taxes; the two municipalities later formed the Princeton Regional Schools, and some other public services are conducted together.

There have been three referenda proposing to reunite the two Princetons but they have all been narrowly defeated. The Borough contains Nassau Street, the main commercial street, most of the University campus, and incorporated most of the urban area until the postwar suburbanization. Borough and Township now have roughly equal populations, together approaching 30,000.

United States Postal Zip Codes for Princeton include 08542 (largely the Borough), 08544 (The University) and 08540. The latter covers areas outside Princeton proper, including portions of Lawrence, Hopewell and West Windsor Townships in Mercer County, Montgomery and Franklin Townships in Somerset County and Plainsboro and South Brunswick Townships in Middlesex County. The resulting ambiguity is exploited by local real estate agents who will often advertise a property in these neighboring communities as having a “prestigious Princeton address”. Further adding to confusion is the spread of “Princeton” as part of business, church and residential development even further beyond the boundaries of the Township and Borough.

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