Joseph Henry House, National Historic Landmark in Princeton, New Jersey.
The Joseph Henry House is a brick building on Princeton University's campus in Princeton, New Jersey, with a gabled roof and an asymmetrical five-bay facade. A single-story open porch runs across its front, and the structure now stands on the northern edge of the university grounds.
The house was built in 1838 and served as the residence of physicist Joseph Henry until 1848, when he left Princeton to become the founding Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Over the years the building was moved several times before reaching its current location in 1946.
The house takes its name from Joseph Henry, one of the most recognized American scientists of the 1800s, who lived there with his family while teaching at Princeton. Today it serves as a humanities center on campus, where researchers gather and work.
The house sits on the northern edge of Princeton's campus and is easy to spot during a walk through the university grounds. Since the building now operates as a humanities center, interior access may be limited, so a visit from the outside is a safe approach.
Although the house was moved multiple times across the university grounds, its outward form remained largely unchanged through each relocation. This makes it a rare case of a historic building that traveled without losing its original appearance.
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