Nassau Hall

Today Nassau Hall is used for administrative offices, but this light brown sandstone structure named for England's King William III, of the House of Nassau, was designated a national landmark in 1960 for serving as a model for colonial college structures and as a barracks in the Revolutionary War. In the Battle of Princeton in 1777, British and American troops quartered there at different times and a cannonball that hit the south wall of the west wing left a scar that is visible today. Nassau Hall became the nation's capitol when the Continental Congress met there between June and November of 1783, and the Congress was there when it first learned that the British had signed a peace treaty granting independence to the former colonies. The bronze tigers on either side of the front steps were designed by sculptor A. P. Proctor and presented in 1911 by Woodrow Wilson's classmates, and from those steps some of the campus's oldest buildings are visible - Stanhope Hall, Maclean House, and Henry House. This site, known as the Front Campus, is the setting for Commencement ceremonies, from which new Princeton graduates symbolically leave campus through FitzRandolph Gate. Behind Nassau Hall is Cannon Green, a lawn under which a Revolutionary War cannon is partially buried. The green is bounded by landmark campus buildings including East Pyne Hall, West College, and the twin Whig and Clio halls.