By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Council is scheduled to vote tonight to make the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood a historic district that would add protections to a community feeling imperiled by developers tearing down old homes and building new ones.
“This could be a very momentous evening,” Mayor Liz Lempert told reporters Monday afternoon at her pre-meeting press conference.
If council approves, this would be the 20th historic district in town — lending official recognition to the historical significance of the once historically black section of the community whose residents endured segregation well into the 20th century. While that black population has shrunk through the years, those left behind have pushed for historic designation.
“We’ve heard an outpouring from many of the long-standing residents in the community,” Mayor Lempert said.
Officials have voiced their support for creating the district, one that goes from a stretch of Bayard Lane to Birch Avenue to Witherspoon Street to Paul Robeson Place.
But the mayor said there is an error in the ordinance creating the district; a small part of the blacks only section of the Princeton Cemetery was included by mistake. At the press conference, town administrator Marc D. Dashield said municipal staff has recommended that council adopt the ordinance as is and then remove the parcel from the district at a later date.
