By Anne Levin

Subtle changes are underway at Princeton Battlefield State Park. Those familiar with the site along Mercer Road may have noticed that some trees have been removed, especially around the Thomas Clarke House.

This is just the beginning of a multi-year project to make the site of Gen. George Washington’s January 1777 “Ten Crucial Days” victory against the British more historically accurate. By the time celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary begin in 2026, the park should more closely resemble that wartime landscape.

It is all part of a plan called “Washington’s Legacy,” and it includes the installation of a walking path, replanting of an orchard near where the Clarke House once stood, the restoration of historic tree lines, and the recreation of the Sawmill Trace Road, which Washington and his troops traveled as they came to the battlefield. The project is a collaboration of the Princeton Battlefield Society (PBS), the American Battlefield Trust (ABT), and the State of New Jersey.

“The good thing about all of this is that it’s a real three-legged stool,” said Todd Quackenbush of the PBS. “We’re hoping it will be something of a model.”

Princeton Battlefield Park is the first Revolutionary War battlefield that the ABT, formerly known as the Civil War Trust, has undertaken to upgrade since widening its focus beyond the Civil War. “So we’re the lead echelon,” said Quackenbush. “It’s very exciting and a nice distinction.”

The project aims to relocate visitor services to outside core battlefield land, “which not only helps turn back the clock, but creates the potential for a new education center and expanded parking and bus access,” reads the website of the ABT. The ABT’s “phased approach to accomplishing this vision will transform Princeton Battlefield State Park into a model for cultural heritage landscapes ahead of 2026.”

Will Krakauer, resource interpretive specialist at the park, is quoted on the website, “Visitors will get to walk the same pathways that Washington and his men took 250 years ago. They’ll get to survey the grounds and see in their mind’s eye what it would have been like to witness hundreds of British troops on the hill opposite them. They’ll march over the same ground, stand on battle lines, charge through the recreated apple orchard — it’s going to be an amazing experience.”

The park’s beginnings date from 1946, when Princeton landowners gifted some 40 acres to the State of New Jersey. The site has grown to include some 80 acres, not including the adjacent Institute Woods owned by the Institute for Advanced Study. The battlefield was listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” in 2012.

New trails and signage are part of the plan. So is digital technology, including a new Princeton Battlefield app that “will be immersed in the battle’s action and the lives of its participants through a combination of augmented reality, audio, video, and imagery,” according to the ABT website.

Though its installation post-dates the historic battle, the colonnade is being restored as part of the project. “We’re very gratified that the good folks at the state have stepped up,” said Quackenbush. “Major maintenance is needed. When you get up close, you can see that these almost 200-year-old columns need work.”

By the end of next year, major changes will have taken place on the battlefield. The goal is to make it not only more historically accurate, but also more enjoyable for visitors.

“I say this all the time, but people who live in the Princeton area don’t always realize how enormously consequential the battle was,” said Quackenbush. “It was the capstone that turned the Revolution around.”