Finding history behind the red brick walls

The pre-Revolutionary War building, situated next to the Garden Theatre and a stone’s throw away from FitzRandolph Gate, contains more than 40,000 images and manuscript materials and roughly 1,200 other three-dimensional objects from Princeton’s rich, compelling history.

Originally built in 1766 as a private residence for Job Stockton, Bainbridge House remained private until the University purchased it in the 1870s, curator Eileen Morales said.

Initially used as a boarding house for University students, in 1910 Bainbridge became the first home of the Princeton Public Library, which is now located on Witherspoon Street.

Though it is still owned by the University, Bainbridge House has been the headquarters of the Historical Society of Princeton since 1967. “[The University] generously lease[s] it to us for $1 per year,” Morales said.

Visitors range from local members of the Historical Society to prospective students and their families to international tourists, Morales said, adding that the society hosts between 15,000 and 20,000 visitors each year.

In 2004, the society acquired the Updike Farmstead, a six-acre site in Princeton Township named after the family that lived there for more than 100 years.

The buildings on the property are currently undergoing renovations, but Morales said the completed site will be the society’s future headquarters.

“We’ll keep Bainbridge House, of course,” she explained, “but we’ll also have this farmhouse available to us to have additional exhibition and programming space.”

Morales, who has worked in museums for 14 years, specializes in local histories. When the opportunity came for her to work in Princeton, she said she couldn’t pass it up.

“There are so many stories that we’re able to tell here, from the Revolution, to our Quaker heritage, to [Albert] Einstein,” Morales said.

The Historical Society has five full-time staff members as well as a small group of part-time employees who work in the museum shop selling Princeton memorabilia such as F. Scott Fitzgerald ’17 finger puppets and Einstein’s theory of relativity ties.

The society’s volunteer base includes more than 150 people, including high school students who work as docents and give walking tours on Sundays at 2 p.m.

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Membership is open to all, Morales explained. “We take anyone who is willing to pay the membership fee,” which begins at $40 for students and senior citizens and is $45 for adults.

First established in 1938, the Historical Society of Princeton currently has roughly 900 members that hail primarily from Princeton Borough, Township and other areas in central New Jersey, Morales said.

“The vast majority are people who have an interest in history,” she noted, adding that University alumni who have settled in Princeton since graduating are also well represented in the membership.

One benefit of membership is free access to the society’s library. Non-members are asked to pay a nominal fee of $5 to use it, though Morales said that “if it’s a problem to pay the fee, we’re always willing to waive that. We don’t want to turn anyone away. We’re here to make the material accessible to people.”

University ties

The Historical Society has a long tradition of working closely with the University.

“The vast majority of our exhibitions focus on Princeton, the town, but most have a University-specific component,” Morales said.

The society has often enlisted the help of University faculty members as advisers on its exhibitions and as lecturers or panelists for its programs. History professor Daniel Rodgers advised the society on the current exhibit, “Princeton in the 1930s,” and professor emeritus James MacPherson lent his expertise to “Princeton During the Civil War,” which ran from fall 2006 through July 2007.

Some students have recently taken advantage of the society’s resources.

Anthony D’Amato ’10 visited Bainbridge House for the first time Tuesday to research the history of the railroad for creative writing professor John McPhee’s non-fiction course. D’Amato was pleased to find an abundance of materials on the Dinky among the society’s archives.

Anna Toledano ’11, who is writing a paper on Einstein for her writing seminar, said the society’s archives are “very extensive.”

“Apparently [Einstein is] their number-one inquiry,” she added.

Toledano said that while the society’s collection may only be pertinent to students researching topics having to do with the Princeton community, “if that’s what you want, it’s a good resource.”

“[Princetonians] think that Firestone is the be-all and end-all of research materials. But there’s actually a lot of materials just across the street,” D’Amato said.

“We’d love to see more students here, so we’re hopeful that people can cross the street and visit us here at Bainbridge house,” Morales said.

Now playing at Bainbridge House

The society is currently hosting “Princeton in the 1930s,” an exhibition that spans three galleries on the first floor of Bainbridge House and contains a comprehensive history of Princeton during the Great Depression.

“We tried to give a three-dimensional look at domestic life through the 1930s,” Morales said of the first gallery, which contains furniture that belonged to Einstein himself.

In another corner, a child’s dress, modeled after one worn by Shirley Temple, hangs by a sewing machine from 1939.

“I relate that story particularly when our school groups come in,” Morales said. “I talk about it in terms of who the popular girls are in the media today. Usually the kids tell me they want to look like Hannah Montana.”

A black-and-white film, shot by former Princeton mayor Carl Erdman ’19, plays at the front of the gallery. The film features the P-Rade at Reunions 1929, where “silliness prevailed,” Morales said. Indeed, one entire class of alumni was dressed in questionable Native American garb. Another alumnus appeared to be dressed as a chef.

“It’s such a great thing to have this in terms of understanding that things are so much the same in some ways. Here we are back in 1929, and yet next month, all the students will be coming back to campus again doing the same types of things they did then,” Morales noted.

The Great Depression on campus

The section of the exhibit that focused on the University is located in the second gallery.

“This image really sums it up,” Morales said, pointing to an image of Bill Sullivan, a former staff member of The Daily Princetonian.

Morales explained that after the bank holiday in 1933, the ‘Prince’ issued “scrip,” slips of paper that students could use on campus and in the town to pay for things during the financial crisis. By backing up the vouchers, the newspaper provided a “local economic engine,” Morales said.

An enlarged cover of Tiger Magazine hangs on the other side of the display. The caption says it depicts a rehearsal session of the University’s famed Triangle Club.

Pointing to the sheet music for “East of the Sun,” Morales explained that the song is the Triangle Club’s highest-grossing musical piece ever. Produced in 1935 and later recorded by Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, it continues to bring in royalties for the club.

Unlike many others, “members of the Triangle Club were still able to find jobs on Broadway even in the midst of the Depression,” Morales said.

Urban development in downtown Princeton

Part of the third and final gallery at Bainbridge House portrays the controversial birth of Palmer Square, named after Edgar Palmer, Class of 1903 and formed out of Baker’s Alley and other streets.

“He had a significant fortune from the New Jersey Zinc Company, and he was here long enough in town that he thought it’d be great to have a downtown area that was unified through its architecture,” Morales explained, pointing to a drawing of his vision.

Pictures of the now-defunct Baker’s Alley depict the part of Princeton that “wasn’t quite as aesthetically pleasing as the rest,” Morales said. “The perception was that this area of town was a slum.”

Baker’s Alley, along with the rest of the neighborhood now known as Palmer Square, was either razed or moved to the edge of the Borough to make room for Palmer’s new development, which he wanted to blend with the rest of colonial Nassau Street.

The problem with this, Morales said, was that the residential community displaced by the plans consisted mostly of the town’s poorer classes, specifically the African-American and Italian communities. Many were University employees who worked in the eating clubs or dormitories.

“Certainly from an aesthetic standpoint and a commercial standpoint, Palmer Square was a success, but from a historic standpoint, it’s important to think about the people who were affected by the development,” Morales said.

Upcoming projects

The Historical Society’s next exhibition, “Stand Up, Speak Out,” will focus on Princeton’s participation in the democratic process, including the student and community uprisings in the 1960s.

“Neither the town nor the University had a monopoly on the protests,” University Archivist Dan Linke said. “The history of the town and the University are intertwined.”

Programming for “Stand Up, Speak Out” will include a panel discussion with the Wilson School. Morales is also working with P-Votes to help build and develop the exhibition.

Linke, who frequents the society’s exhibitions, has high expectations for “Stand Up, Speak Out.”

Citing the society’s “Princeton During the Civil War” exhibit of two years ago, Linke said “they just have people who know how to take the cold, dead facts of history and bring it to life.”