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THINGS
TO DO
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Princeton Station is directly
across the street from the award winning McCarter Theatre. A half-mile stroll
straight up University Place past the theatre on your left and the campus on your
right, will bring you to Nassau Street. If you go right two blocks, you'll find
Palmer Square, the main shopping area in town. Elegant boutiques, expensive jewelry
stores and little gift shops are the order here.
J.E. Caldwell & Co.,
jewelers since 1839, specialize in giftware, designer jewelry, as well as fine china.
Featured names include Baccarat, Steuben, John Harvey and Herend, makers of Hungarian
china, which looks more like the works of an exhibit than merchandise.
Other stores include
Laura Ashley with a shop on Nassau Street and a Laura Ashley Mother & Child
in Palmer Square. With a definitely English feel, Palmer Square features other stores
such as Crabtree and Evelyn and Jaeger, plus a host of other well-known
shops.
Through the arch of the
Nassau Inn, at the north end of Palmer Square, is Spring Street. Here, the
shopping continues. I discovered Shop the World, where they display a large
number of national flags representing their products' countries of origin. It's
an eclectic shop with a combination of useful household accessories, as well as
gifts and trinkets. Gertrude, who runs the store, proudly informed me that the store
stocked fair trade goods. These include jingjai (Thai for trustworthy) products
from Thailand, and other fair trade goods from Kenya, Tibet, Nicaragua and South
Africa, to name a few. This is a must visit store.
For a town the size of
Princeton, the number of art galleries was surprising. There seemed to be one on
every other corner, and Chambers Street is even referred to as Gallery Row. The
Gilded Lion on Chambers features fine art and antique furniture in an old-world
atmosphere of elegance and connoiseurship. The Williams Gallery is also worth
noting.
Micawber Books
came highly recommended. It's one of two secondhand bookstores in Princeton; Pyramid
Books on Witherspoon is the other.
Another must see place
is Landau's, which prides itself as "Princeton's other Great Internationally
Known Institution!" I would have to agree. The store, which has been family run
since 1955, imports European woolens for men and women at more than reasonable prices.
On my visit, there were pure wool sweaters on sale for $39.
Here, I met Robert Landau,
the owner who was extremely gracious and welcoming. He seemed to know everything
there is to know about Princeton, and informed me of all the historic landmarks,
and gave recommendations about where to eat, drink and shop.
Dismayed by the lack of
any mark to commemorate the life of Einstein, who called Princeton home from 1936
until his death in 1955, Robert Landau started his own Einstein exhibit in one corner
of his store. The collection all started with one picture held in the Landau family
archives, then grew after inviting Princetonians with Einstein memorabilia to donate
for an exhibition. Robert explained that, unbelievably, his is the only Einstein
exhibit in the nation.
Einstein's house, which
still stands at 112 Mercer Street where it was moved from its original location
on Alexander Street, is now a private residence. It was never turned into a museum,
specifically on Einstein's request.
For other intriguing bits
of history, try the Historic Society of Princeton at Bainbridge House,
about 50 yards away from Landau's. This is a good starting point for visitors
in town since it has information on all things of cultural and historical interest
in Princeton. They also provide walking tours highlighting notable Princeton sites.
One-hour Orange Key Tours of Princeton University are also available at the
campus. Tours are led by student guides and begin at the welcome desk.
Called the "Westminster
Abbey of the United States," Princeton Cemetery, is also worth seeing. You'll
find the graves of Grover Cleveland, his daughter, "Baby Ruth," of candy
bar fame and John Witherspoon. Informational leaflets can be picked up from the
superintendent's house on Greenview Avenue, off Wiggins Street, at the cemetery's
entrance.
The Art Museum Princeton
University, now the only museum in Princeton, is located in Cormick Hall in
the middle of the campus. (Sadly, the natural history museum closed last year.)
It is easily identifiable by Picasso's large sculpture "Head of a Woman," which
stands outside. The Art Museum has strong pre-Columbian and Chinese art collections.
Recent exhibits have included, "Dutch Drawings in the Golden Age" and Great Impressions:
Art of the Print in the Western World."
 For those in search of outdoor pursuits, Lake Carnegie
and the Delaware and Raritan Canal is located about a half mile south of
the Dinky station (pictured left, covered in snow) . A left upon exiting the station,
brings you to Alexander Street, where another left turn leads to the lake. During
the summer, visitors can hire a canoe for the day or per hour. A towpath running
along the canal, which leads to the lake, is a biker's dream. You can pick up a
rental at Jay's Cycles on Nassau.
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Princeton prides itself as one of the nation's most
historic communities, as well as home to the renowned Princeton University. The
town, whose first inhabitants arrived in the 17th century, produced two signers
of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton and George Washington. There
was even a five-month period in 1873 when Princeton became the nation's capital.
The Nassau Inn (pictured left), is in fact
the only hotel in Princeton proper. Located in the heart of Palmer Square, the distinctive
inn is conveniently located and handsomely decorated. Rooms start at $195/night.
