Penns Neck Cemetery Restoration
Help rehabilitate a West Windsor icon!
The 1730s/40s Penns Neck Cemetery, sited 2,000 feet north of the Route 1-Washington Road crossing, is one of NJ's earliest surviving cemeteries. It holds West Windsor founders, colonial pioneers, and likely Revolutionary War soldiers. It's also eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
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THE CHALLENGE: Despite its importance, the cemetery is little-known and needs restoration. After its last owners, the Penns Neck Cemetery Association, dissolved around the 1930s, it was abandoned and deteriorated dramatically over generations. From 1993-2025, the Princeton Baptist Church cared for it but they transferred stewardship and a small account to us in 2025. Princeton University recently opened a large new campus in the surrounding farmland, but the cemetery stands apart as a separate lot unowned by anyone.
THE VISION: Since Dec. 2024, our small all-volunteer nonprofit has developed long-term rehabilitation goals in consultation with attorneys, restoration experts, the University, and the Princeton Baptist Church:
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We need YOU! This project will be expensive and laborious and we're a small nonprofit. Please support by donating or volunteering!
FAQ:
- Why prioritize this site? There’s more foot traffic around it now, but it’s salvageable and has significant historic value.
- Have you consulted experts? Yes - attorneys, preservation authorities, restoration professionals, and more.
- Who owns the cemetery? No one - not since the Penns Neck Cemetery Association dissolved around the 1930s without deeding it to anyone else (Princeton University's campus is a separate property). We considered ownership, but for fundamental reasons, decided against it. The University also doesn’t intend to own it. However, this doesn't prevent us from restoring it!
- Have you applied for grants? Yes, and we'll keep doing so. However, they’re rare, not guaranteed, and applications take time and resources to write, so we can’t solely rely on them.
- What about sponsorships? Yes, we are pursuing institutional funding, but this, too, isn't guaranteed, so we can't solely rely on it either.
- Does state law protect cemeteries from demolition? Yes, and the University envisions it as a campus landmark.
- Is the University helping? Yes, with periodic weed control and evaluating removal/treatment of the dead/sick trees. We look forward to a fruitful long-term partnership with them.
- Why touch the trees? The University will remove a dead tree that risks dropping branches on fragile gravestones. They'll also evaluate the health of the other two. They are large but too young to be historic and falling branches could irreversibly destroy gravestones.
- Are you a 501(c)(3) nonprofit? Yes. Our EIN is 222459371.
- How can volunteers help? Through fundraising, promotion, physical restoration, and also volunteering more broadly, (ex: at our museum and community events). Sign up here!
- Do you get paid? No one in our all-volunteer nonprofit (not even leadership) is paid. We volunteer our free time because we care.
