Colonade & Burial Ground

Ionic Colonnade

The Ionic Colonnade is located on the north side of the Park and was originally the facade of merchant Mathew Newkirk’s home at 13th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia, designed by Thomas U. Walter (later architect of the U.S. Capitol) in 1836. Torn down circa 1900, the Colonnade was moved and incorporated into Mercer Manor which was being built on the site of the 18th century William Clarke House, around which the battle was fought. After Mercer Manor burned in 1957 the Colonnade was moved nearby to its present location in 1959.

Visitors get a beautiful view of the battlefield from this point. Behind the Colonnade is the Battle of Princeton Gravesite.

Gravesite

Located behind the Colonnade on the north side of the Park is a circular stone patio with a plaque upon written is a poem composed in 1916 by Alfred Noyes, then a visiting Princeton professor and, later, Poet Laureate of England. The engraving also indicates that both British and American dead from the battle are buried nearby. The exact location of the grave in unknown but an eyewitness recorded that 21 British and 15 American soldiers were buried in “an old stone quarry in a wash along the ridge”.