Status: Progress Made
County: Statewide
Additional Features:
UPDATES:
11/00 Route 27 and Route 206; Kings Highway 10-mile stretch from S. Brunswick to lawrenceville listed on SR (and later NR); designated area includes 6 national landmarks and 7 NR districts
2 years in preparation; Kingston, Princeton Township, lawrence Township, lawerenceville; purpose to slow development and give towns leverage in reducing truck traffic; avoid distruptions to hsitoric districts.
Route 206/King’s Highway received state and federal historic designation. Historic Roadway study of state is underway.
DESCRIPTION:
Roads give definition to our landscape. They enable us to get from place to place, of course, but more importantly, in our automobile-dependent culture we know where we are by the roads we travel. Many highways in New Jersey have strong associations with important events of the past. Others retain their historical character because their settings, scale, and alignment are relatively intact.
But these older roads are under strong pressure from an ever-growing number of cars, and longer and heavier trucks. Moreover, federal transportation subsidies are available for new construction but not for maintenance of existing roads or bridges. All over the state, reflected by the increasing number of nominations to the New Jersey and national registers of historic places that include historic highways.
One example of a highway that is currently of great concern is the old main road between New Brunswick and Trenton—now US Route 206 between Trenton and Princeton, and New Jersey Route 27 between Princeton and New Brunswick. An eleven-mile stretch of these roads, between Kingston and Lawrenceville, passes six national landmarks and seven national register districts. It also runs by Princeton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, the Lawrenceville School, and the current, as well as the former, governor’s residence. It has the oldest bridge in the state highway system, among other features.
CONTACT:
Andrea Tingey NJHPO
PO Box 404
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-984-0539
andrea.tingey@dep.state.nj.us
Bob Craig NJHPO
4002 Nottingham Way
Hamilton, NJ 08690
609-984-0541
bob.craig@dep.state.nj.us