Princeton Inn College (curator: now Forbes College) was founded in 1970 in response to a need and an idea. The need, resulting from the admission of women to the university, was housing; the idea was to create a special kind of undergraduate community, a residential college.

The old Princeton Inn, built in 1924-25, was a gracious, rambling hotel.* On the rear terrace, overlooking the pond of Springdale golf course, where the British had made a temporary stand during the Battle of Princeton, guests could sip a cocktail and listen to the music of the carillon float down from the Cleveland Tower. Now the college occupies the main building of the Inn, as well as the former employees' quarters, called the Annex, and a new building opened in 1971, the Addition. Four hundred and forty undergraduates live in these facilities. On the terrace, where waiters in formal dress once served mint juleps, "PRINCETON IN THE NATION'S SERVICE" coeds [sic] now sun themselves or play frisbee in the spring.

The new Inn was planned as a residential college, a community to join what Princeton has traditionally put asunder: academic and social life; different classes; undergraduates, graduate students, townspeople, and faculty; men and women. (Even Princeton Borough and Township come together at the Inn, since the boundary line runs through the center of the lobby.) This purpose has given the college an informal, egalitarian way of life. Even in relation to its fellow colleges, Wilson and Stevenson, Princeton Inn tends to be regarded as the edge of campus. Spiritually as well as geographically, it can seem either a promising frontier or too far to walk (ten minutes from Firestone Library). In its early days the college became known for its raffish, bohemian air. The first Master announced his goal as "perpetual Woodstock"; the mural in the coffee house sprouted an enormous shaggy Love. Eventually, as the counterculture faded, the look and style of the Inn became respectable: solid furniture, chamber music, and Shakespeare. But the spirit of democracy remains strong. Appropriately, the only name officially honored by the Inn belongs to a respectable socialist. In May 1975, the 10,000-volume college library was dedicated to Norman Thomas '05.

More social and cultural activities take place at Princeton Inn, probably, than anywhere else on campus. Almost every evening something will be happening: a dance, party, or poetry reading; Black Thoughts or French conversation; a festival of Latin-American movies or a conference on Virginia Woolf. Most of these events are run by students, supported by student funds, and responsible to a student council.

Assistant and Associate Masters (graduate students and faculty residents) help look after the college as a whole, as do the Masters (scholars as well as administrators). The Masters of the Inn have been Albert Sonnenfeld (1970-1973), Lawrence and Joanna Lipking (1973-1976), and Gerald and Lou Ann Garvey (1976-).

Lawrence Lipking

*A still older Princeton Inn, located on the site of the current Borough Hall, had been in use for twenty-five years (1893-1918). Source: Leitch p. 384 ff

More information on Forbes College

Photograph prior to acquisition by the University in 1970

The original Princeton Inn, located where Borough Hall stands today.