What is the oldest tree in Princeton, New Jersey?
The tree we map for Princeton is the Mercer Oak, and it is young rather than ancient: a white oak planted around 2000 to 2001 from an acorn of the original three-hundred-year-old Mercer Oak, which fell in a storm in March 2000. It stands in the open field of Princeton Battlefield State Park, near where General Hugh Mercer was mortally wounded on 3 January 1777, free to visit every day.
Princeton Battlefield State Park sits about 3 km southwest of downtown Princeton, New Jersey, at 500 Mercer Street. There is no public transit to the gate; the park has its own free parking. The nearest city we publish is Philadelphia, roughly 65 km away, too far to fold into a single day trip. The park is open daily, free, and the oak stands alone in the middle of the open battlefield lawn, easy to find because there is nothing else there competing for attention. It marks history more than it displays age: the tree that made this ground famous was three centuries old when it fell in a March 2000 storm, and its replacement is roughly a quarter of a century into the same job, grown from an acorn an arborist planted in the old stump. The Princeton Battlefield Society dates that planting to 2001, though other accounts only say it happened soon after the original fell. There is no strong seasonal moment for a young white oak; visit for the battlefield and the story of 3 January 1777 rather than for a particular week.
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