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The Washington Road Elm Allée is a stretch of Washington Road in
The original allée was planted in the mid-1920s by Princeton Nurseries, at one time the country's largest commercial
To the east of the Elm Allée, from the road, along the jogging path, can be found the Schenck-Covenhoven Burial Ground, sometimes called the Old Conover Graveyard. It contains forty or fifty graves surrounded by a stone wall and is undoubtedly the oldest cemetery in West Windsor Township, with burials dating to at least 1751. The Schenck and Covenhoven families were
File:Albert Schenck Gravestone.jpg, Gravestone of Albert Schenck, died 1786
File:Crumbling graves.jpg, Crumbling gravestones
File:David S. Dye Gravestone.jpg, David S. Dye gravestone, died 1875
West Windsor, New Jersey
West Windsor is a township in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Located within the Raritan Valley region, the township is an outer-ring suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census ...
that is lined with Princeton Elm trees. The allée
In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its L ...
runs through the West Windsor fields of Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
and provides, along with the bridge over Lake Carnegie
Lake Carnegie is a reservoir that is formed from a dam on the Millstone River, in the far northeastern corner of Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. The Delaware and Raritan Canal and its associated tow path are situated along the eastern shor ...
, a dramatic entrance to the campus. The Delaware and Raritan Canal
The Delaware and Raritan Canal (D&R Canal) is a canal in central New Jersey, built in the 1830s, that served to connect the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philadelp ...
can be found at the northern end of the allée, just before the lake. A jogging path runs through the allée and connects to the canal towpath
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...
, the main campus of the university, and other trails through the adjacent fields.
History
Elm Allée
The original allée was planted in the mid-1920s by Princeton Nurseries, at one time the country's largest commercial plant nursery
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general p ...
. The Elm trees are of the Princeton variety, developed by Princeton Nurseries for its landscaping quality, and are resistant to Dutch elm disease
Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into Americas, America ...
, the only one of ten resistant cultivars to have trees that have reached maturity. Of the original 136 Elms planted in the 1920s only 76 survive. They are approximately in diameter and tall. Their branches meet over the roadway to provide a leafy canopy. The allée has many replacement trees, including 16 Norway maples planted in the 1960s, and 31 Liberty elms planted in 1995. The secondary rows of Delaware Elms were planted in 1983, and a long row of forsythia to the east is thought to date from the late 1960s.
Schenck-Covenhoven Burial Ground
To the east of the Elm Allée, from the road, along the jogging path, can be found the Schenck-Covenhoven Burial Ground, sometimes called the Old Conover Graveyard. It contains forty or fifty graves surrounded by a stone wall and is undoubtedly the oldest cemetery in West Windsor Township, with burials dating to at least 1751. The Schenck and Covenhoven families were Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
farmers who purchased in what is now West Windsor from William Penn
William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...
in 1737. The Conover family was among the original settlers in Penns Neck, a settlement found at the south end of the allée. The cemetery has been in disuse for more than a century, though it receives some maintenance from the university.
Gallery
See also
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Mercer County, New Jersey
List of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Mercer County, New Jersey
__NOTOC__
This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Mercer County, New Jerse ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Road Elm Allee National Register of Historic Places in Mercer County, New Jersey West Windsor, New Jersey Princeton University Avenues (landscape) New Jersey Register of Historic Places