King’s Highway now a national historic site
By: David Weinstein
For the King’s Highway, a long and winding road has ended on the rolls of the National Historic Registry.
The Dec. 21 approval by the U.S. Department of Natural Resources came about six weeks after the state Office of Historic Preservation accepted the 10-mile stretch of road for inclusion in its own registry in early November, thereby nominating the highway for a place on the national list.
The application was received at the national level Nov. 6, said Alexis Abernathy, a historian with the Department of Natural Resources.
Ms. Abernathy said not many stretches of a road or highway find their way to the national list, or are even nominated for such designation, but there are a few, including the famous Route 66.
"It’s very exciting," said Maynett Breithaupt, chairwoman of the Princeton Township Historic Preservation Commission, who voiced surprise at the speed with which the application was accepted.
"This could be a record approval for such an innovative application," Ms. Breithaupt said.
King’s Highway is the lone road on New Jersey’s list of historic places.
Now included on the National Historic Registry are sections of the highway comprising Route 27 and Route 206 that run through five municipalities South Brunswick, Frankling, the two Princetons and Lawrence.
The section begins at the Raymond Road intersection with Route 27 that bounds Franklin and South Brunswick townships. The district runs through the village of Kingston and into Princeton Township before passing through the borough on Nassau Street. It continues on Route 206, passing into Lawrence Township, through the village of Lawrenceville and on to its terminus, Franklin Corner Road.
"This is great news for a number of reasons," said Bill Enslin, a Princeton Township committeeman and member of the Historic Preservation Commission.
Chief among those reasons, he said, is the protection the designation offers the many historic sections of the region.
"It certainly displays the distinctive nature of this area, and its history," he said. "Few roads have been approved at the national level. It’s an honor."
Furthermore, Mr. Enslin said, "It helps us in managing the road and its resources, and the road should now be seen other than as a conduit to get from here to there."