New Jersey

Love a challenge? Name the two homes credited with being built by a U.S. president. We’ll spare you the struggle. Along with Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, there’s the stately Tudor Revival home in New Jersey that Woodrow Wilson tasked New York architect Edward S. Child with building for his family in 1895 and can now be yours for $6.5 million. Available through Barbara Blackwell of Sotheby’s International Realty, the beloved mansion offers a rare chance to own a piece of American history. 

Wilson served as the 28th U.S. President from 1913 to 1921 as a member of the Democratic Party, and he is globally recognized for his leadership during World War I. Some might say, however, it was the Garden State’s town of Princeton that knew him best. After graduating from the borough’s acclaimed Ivy League school in 1879, he served as the university’s professor of law from 1890 to 1902, during which time he tapped Child for the residence at 82 Library Place.  

Hand-painted walls in the dining room depict notable landmarks on the campus of Princeton University.

Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty

Wilson and his family moved into the abode in 1896, and “the door was always open for Princeton students who wished to meet with their revered professor and attend class in his grand foyer,” press materials state. Decades later, it was “vacant and in decline,” according to Princeton’s weekly newspaper Town Topics, which spoke with its owner Robert Carr in 2018. “It was actually very well built. I told Jim Baxter I wanted it to last for another 100 years,” he said in regard to hiring architect Ron Berlin and Baxter Construction for its remodeling.

Berlin was given the Award for Historic Preservation by the Historical Society of Princeton in 2007 for his work on the residence. This includes reviving the burnished woodwork and repairing a host of leaded glass windows throughout. Moving past its charming facade, where trimmed shrubs highlight a stone base and crowning features like mullioned windows, guests have ample room to spread out beneath a plaster tracery ceiling in the formal living room. Hand-painted walls act as an ode to Princeton’s campus in the dining room next door. 

Wood-trimmed windows and an all-glass roof the greenhouse-style sunroom with natural light.

Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty

Homeowners and guests can relax in a greenhouse-inspired sunroom with wood-trimmed windows or take a beat in the kitchen that’s anchored by a stone-top island and also features a working dumbwaiter, double Wolf range, and brass pot rack. A clubby, oak-paneled library and a porte-cochère-turned-office round out the ground level. Seven bedrooms (plus a second sunroom on the second floor) span the three-story home’s upper level, including a primary suite that’s complete with a coffee bar and two fireplaces, one in the bedroom and another in the heated-marble bathroom that opens to a balcony. 

While the multi-room basement provides plenty of space for entertaining and lounging, the backyard’s two patios are most ideal for hosting alfresco events. In addition to gardens redesigned by Holly Grace Nelson in 2022, the outdoor space includes a fountain that trickles into a large koi pond and a two-car detached garage for your favorite rides.  

Click here for more photos of the Princeton home.

Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty

Authors

Demetrius Simms

Demetrius Simms is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. Following a brief stint in public relations, their work has now appeared in lifestyle and culture publications such as Men’s Health, Complex…

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