Fifty feet tall and modeled on the Arc de Triomphe, your Princeton Battle Monument rises beside Morven. It commemorates the January 3, 1777 Battle of Princeton, and its sculpture group depicts General George Washington leading his troops to victory and the death of General Hugh Mercer. The monument stands 50 feet (15 m) tall and was inspired by the carvings on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Designed to visually anchor the western end of Nassau Street, the monument and its surrounding park are a legacy of the City Beautiful movement. A little civic history is carved into this place as surely as bronze: an act of Congress on June 8, 1906 appropriated $30,000 to the Princeton Battle Monument Association, an organization that dates back to 1887 and includes local notables Allan Marquand and Moses Taylor Pyne. The association was required to match that $30,000, and on February 24, 1908, having raised the requisite funds, it commissioned Beaux Arts sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, with architectural design by Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings.
Notice the composition, then picture Nassau Street running west toward Morven and the borough hall at your side.