Graduate Princeton

Graduate Princeton opened on 19 August 2024 in a restored and enlarged 1918 dormitory on Nassau Street, directly across from Princeton University. It has 180 rooms and a bar and restaurant named Ye Tavern. AJ Capital Partners developed it with the architecture firm Stonehill Taylor.

The place

The hotel is on Nassau Street, the main road of downtown Princeton, directly across from the university campus. The sources give no street number. Nassau Hall, the university's oldest building, and the shops and restaurants of the town center are within a short walk.

Princeton's rail station is not downtown: the short shuttle line known as the Dinky connects it to the main Northeast Corridor at Princeton Junction, which is the practical route from New York and Philadelphia.

The concept

The building is a former university dormitory from around 1918, in the Colonial Revival style. AJ Capital Partners, the developer behind the Graduate Hotels brand and led by Ben Weprin, restored it, modernized it and added to it, working with the architecture firm Stonehill Taylor. The press release describes it as the first new hotel to open in Princeton in nearly 90 years and only the second in the historic downtown, nearly doubling the town's hotel rooms. Hilton opened it as a Graduate by Hilton hotel on 19 August 2024.

Graduate hotels are built on a local-university theme, and this one is dense with it. The two-story lobby is designed like a Gothic library, with orange-and-black floor tiles, thousands of books and vintage Reunions jackets, the garments Princeton gives alumni at their 25th reunion. The reception desk is hand-carved and flanked by four wooden tigers. A 30-foot carved table is meant for studying and gathering, and the names of the university's eating clubs are painted in gold leaf on the bookcases.

The 180 rooms carry smaller references. Seersucker drapes are orange and white, carpet is apricot, and bedside lamps are modeled on the Revolutionary War cannon behind Nassau Hall. Bed frames are wood-carved with illustrations that refer to the Cane Spree, an intramural contest dating to the 1860s. Bathroom wallpaper is inspired by the campus arboretum and each bathroom has a framed sketch by Albert Einstein, referring to his years at the Institute for Advanced Study.

The release gives 6,000 square feet of public space and does not describe event rooms, suites or rates.

Dining & wellness

Ye Tavern is the signature bar and restaurant, at the far end of the lobby from reception. It takes its name from a 1930s bar that once stood on the site. The room has a carved wooden bar, stone-topped banquettes and leather-top tables, and the menu pairs pre-Prohibition style cocktails with classic American dishes, regional food and grab-and-go items through the day.