Princeton Battlefield State Park, located on Mercer Rd (Princeton Pike) in Princeton Township, was dedicated in 1946 and has grown to 85 acres of lawn and woodland on part of the original battlefield. Open year round, the park is used for a variety of summer and winter activities including picnics, hiking, and cross country skiing.

Matthieu Barragué © 2006

Within the Park is the Thomas Clarke House Museum, the historic Mercer Oak tree, the colonnade monument, and a gravesite of 21 British and 15 American soldiers. The Princeton Battle Monument designed by Frederick MacMonnies, is also part of the Park and is located in Princeton Borough one mile from the main Park.

Adjacent to the Park is Stony Brook Friends Meetinghouse, built in 1726, and its graveyard with the grave of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Also adjacent is the Institute of Advance Study and the institute Woods, a 600 acre woodland and agricultural land preserved as a wildlife preserve with trails open to the public.

The Thomas Clarke House Museum was built circa1772 in the middle of a 200 acre farm. The Clarkes, 3rd generation of Quakers at Stony Brook, cared for wounded of both sides which included a Scottish born American officer, Brigadier General Hugh Mercer. Despite care from British and American doctors, including Declaration of Independence signer Dr Benjamin Rush, Mercer died on January 12 and was buried in Philadelphia. Mercer County was named in his honor.

The house is now furnished in the Revolutionary period and also contains several rooms of military artifacts and exhibits and a research library of 18th century military, political, and domestic subject.

See how the Insitute of Advanced Study will be encroaching on the Princeton Battlefield State Park.