Activities

Preservation Awards

The Historical Society of Princeton’s bi-annual Preservation Awards recognize completed work on significant buildings and/or historic landscapes in Princeton Borough and Township or visible from Princeton’s borders. The awards are intended to acknowledge property owners who have exerted extraordinary effort on preservation projects.

Award categories include:

  • Restoration: returning a property to its documented historic appearance using appropriate materials and maintaining character-defining features.
  • Rehabilitation: repairing a property, while adapting it for modern use, and respecting its proportions, setting, materials, and character-defining features.
  • Compatible additions: new construction complementing and subsidiary to the historic property. Such additions need not be in the same style as the original property, but should respond sympathetically to its proportions, height and massing.
  • In-fill construction: new construction harmonious with and respecting the character and scale of neighboring properties.
  • Stewardship: preserving a property through extraordinary maintenance efforts.
  • Advocacy: people or organizations who have educated the public about preservation, have contributed to the preservation of historic resources through documentation and/or advocacy, or contributed to governmental decisions that have preserved historic buildings and landscapes.

For guidance regarding these categories, refer to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/standguide/.

Awards are presented every other year at the Society’s Bainbridge Club Party, typically held in May.

History Hero/Community Leadership Awards

The Historical Society of Princeton initiated a new awards program in 2010. Presented in alternate years at our annual Bainbridge Club party in May, the History Hero Award and the Community Leadership Awards are given to an individual and to an organization or business which has demonstrated tremendous, sustained commitment to furthering the goals of HSP. In 2010, HSP presented the first History Hero award to Carol N. Wojciechowicz and the first Community Leadership Award to Baxter Construction. Ms. Wojciechowicz has been an HSP volunteer and supporter since 1991, an active participant in all HSP fundraising activities and throughout the preservation and rehabilitation of the Updike Farmstead. Baxter Construction has provided outstanding support and dedication to HSP’s preservation initiatives, fundraising activities, and facilities.

In September, 2012, at the Society’s annual Bainbridge Club Party, PNC Bank/PNC Wealth Management was awarded the Community Leadership Award. Under the inspirational leadership of Christine Lokhammer, Wealth Management Director in Princeton, PNC has supported the Society’s mission, community events, and expansion of our facilities for many years. Representatives from the Princeton office and others have also provided sponsorship for area schools and organizations to send children to programs at our Updike Farmstead. The Trustees and staff are grateful for all of the community leadership that PNC has consistently demonstrated on our behalf.