The Princeton Battle Monument is located in Princeton, New Jersey, adjacent to Morven and Princeton's borough hall. The Monument commemorates the January 3, 1777 Battle of Princeton

Battle of Princeton

The Battle of Princeton was a battle in which General George Washington's revolutionary forces defeated British forces near Princeton, New Jersey....

, and depicts General George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 leading his troops to victory and the death of General Hugh Mercer

Hugh Mercer

Hugh Mercer was a soldier and physician. He initially served with British forces during the Seven Years War but later became a brigadier general in the Continental Army and a close friend to George Washington...

.

Commissioned in 1908, the Monument was designed by the prominent Beaux Arts sculptor Frederick MacMonnies

Frederick William MacMonnies

Frederick William MacMonnies was the best known expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, as successful and lauded in France as he was in the United States...

 with the assistance of architect Thomas Hastings

Thomas Hastings (architect)

Thomas Hastings was an American architect.- Biography :He was born in New York City to Thomas Samuel Hastings, a Presbyterian minister, and Fanny de Groot. Hastings came from a colonial Yankee background, his ancestor Thomas Hastings having come from the East Anglia region of England to the...

. President Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...

was present for the 1922 dedication of the Monument.

Nighttime illumination of the Monument was part of the original plan for its construction, but it was only in 2007, 85 years after the completion of the Monument, that the lighting work finally got underway, after a successful fundraising effort by the Princeton Parks Alliance. Charles Stone of the New York firm Fischer Marantz Stone designed the lighting scheme.

After years of neglect and unsuccessful "restorations", the monument underwent a professional conservation treatment in 2006 and 2007, as part of the State of New Jersey historic preservation initiative. The treatment was carried out by Aegis Restauro, LLC led by conservators, Zbigniew Pietruszewski and Joanna Pietruszewski, and Farewell, Mills and Gatsch Architects. In September 2007, the Monument was ceremoniously rededicated when the lights were switched on for the first time.