GPS City GuidePrincetonAlbert Einstein House

Stop 14 of 31 · Princeton audio walking tour

Albert Einstein House

Princeton · 1935 · Einstein's Princeton home

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on Albert Einstein House — the story behind what you're looking at, playing hands-free as you arrive.

This modest cottage is the Albert Einstein House, 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey, his home from 1935 until 1955. From this modest façade you can imagine the life Albert Einstein led here from 1935 until his death in 1955. His second wife, Elsa Einstein, purchased the house from Mary Clark Marden on July 24, 1935; the deed was recorded by the Mercer County Clerk's Office on August 1, 1935.

Elsa died in 1936 while living in this home. The building itself began life in 1838, originally standing on Alexander Street where Stuart Hall of the Princeton Theological Seminary was built that year, a move that displaced the house now at 108 Mercer. Architecturally it is a simple pattern-book cottage, not in itself of unusual significance, yet it became intimate domestic ground for Einstein and three women who lived here with him: his sister Maja, his step-daughter Margot Einstein-Marianoff (1899–1986), and his secretary Helen Dukas.

Einstein reportedly asked that this house not be made a museum and his family did not want it recognized as such, though it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1976. Notice the simple cottage and picture Mercer Street stretching beyond it.

Where it is

Coordinates
40.34337, -74.66677
Area
Princeton
Era
1935 · Einstein's Princeton home
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.