Alexander Hall, Princeton University, New Jersey - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

Princeton University was established in 1746 making it older than the United States itself. At that time, it wasn’t called Princeton nor was it a university. In fact, it wasn’t even located in Princeton. But it has grown into one of the most respected, highly ranked institutes of higher education in the world. In 1996, Princeton celebrated its 250th anniversary and the U.S. Postal Service responded with this commemorative postal card. It shows Alexander Hall, a large ornately detailed auditorium which opened in 1894 as the school’s convocation hall.

Every college has its share of lore. One of Princeton’s legends is that the design of Alexander Hall was submitted by a student as an architecture class project. The design was so bad that the student received an “F” for a grade. Later, this same student offered a substantial contribution to the college but only if they built Alexander Hall according to his failed design. Completely untrue rumors like this must have the real architect, William Appleton Potter, turning over in his grave. Potter, who was never a student at Princeton, designed several buildings on campus besides Alexander Hall in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Alexander Hall was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style (named after American architect and U.S. stamp subject Henry Hobson Richardson). The stamp shows the building’s south façade which contains many ornate architectural details. These include a large Tiffany stained glass rose window and a bas-relief sculpture. Both the window and the sculpture contain allegorical figures representing Genius, Knowledge, Study, Law, History, Philosophy etc., etc. There’s hardly any quality or area of study associated with a college that’s not allegorically represented here.

Alexander Hall is named after three generations of Alexanders, all with degrees from Princeton: Charles B. Alexander (class of 1870), his father Henry M. Alexander (class of 1840) and his father, the Reverend Dr. Archibald Alexander (honorary doctorate degree, 1810).

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 20-Sep-1996 Denomination: 20 cents Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for this category, you must visit the actual site of the waymark. Post at least one photo that you personally took of the site if at all possible. If you cannot provide a photo for some reason, your visit will still be welcome.

You do NOT need to be a stamp collector to visit the waymark site, nor do you have to provide a photo of the stamp. Just having a copy of the stamp in question, however, is not sufficient; you must personally visit the site.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.