Richard S. Snedeker, West Windsor
Your story in the issue of Dec. 2 contains numerous references to the Butler Tract and other aspects of university housing that once existed at that location. As one who lived in university housing that once existed there, I am constantly annoyed at the misrepresentation that is so often used in describing the place and why it was there in the first place. It’s as if the university has forgotten its history in that part of town.
When World War II ended in 1945, there were many Princeton students in the armed forces who were discharged in a short period of time. Many of them wanted to return to their education at Princeton that had been interrupted. Many hundreds chose to come back who had acquired families while in the armed forces. The university had no place for them to live. Thus a special housing development was erected on the one-time polo field (Devereux Field) on Harrison Street. It was the only university land available for such use, and interest in polo had decreased with the concentration on winning the war.
The buildings that were built all contained two-bedroom apartments, some smaller than the others, but all with the same basic layout. They were not “barracks style” by any means. They all had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom. Several years after the main post-war influx was over, I moved into a “small” unit with my new wife and lived there for a year before I was able to move to a “large” unit where we lived for another four years. A large unit had the same layout as a small unit, but the rooms were a bit longer.
Understandably, the housing became universally known as “the Harrison Street Project.” That’s what everyone called it. (Some referred to it jokingly as “the Barracks” as a parody denoting the connection of its one-time occupants to the armed forces. But there was no similarity to real barracks housing which was designed to accommodate hundreds of occupants on cots at once. Real barracks were found at Army training camps.) The apartment rents were $40 per month when we lived there in the early 1950s. At the time, I was both a university graduate and an employee, which qualified me to live there. I had been in the Navy before entering Princeton.
It is good to know that the property will now be put to good use by the university, but it would be good if university officials would show that they know a bit more about the history of the place when describing their plans. Believe it or not there are still quite a few of us still around here who lived there once.
Richard S. Snedeker
West Windsor
