UNCOVERING PENNS NECK’S PAST: The Schenck-Covenhoven Cemetery, a Colonial-era burial ground located in Princeton University’s Meadows Neighborhood in West Windsor off Route 1 and Washington Road, is now slated for restoration. (Photo courtesy of Historical Society of West Windsor)

By Matt Hersh

Princeton University’s West Windsor campus, usually referred to as the Meadows Neighborhood, has always been envisioned as a lively community with space to support academic partnerships, graduate student housing, varsity athletics, recreational uses, and parking. The neighborhood incorporates the area’s natural ecological elements to integrate the larger University campus with the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park.

In addition to illustrating the University’s future, the Meadows Neighborhood also gives a glimpse into the area’s historically rich past. A burial ground on the site links directly to the area’s Colonial past, while illustrating a renewed interest in preserving a long-“eligible” location on the National Register of Historic Places.

That historic place is the Schenck-Covenhoven Cemetery, which sits north of the Route 1-Washington Road traffic circle and is one of New Jersey’s oldest

surviving Colonial burial grounds. It holds West Windsor founders, early colonial settlers, and likely Revolutionary War soldiers. However, it has deteriorated after being abandoned generations ago. To make matters more challenging, there is no one accountable as there is no owner. But that could change, according to Paul Ligeti, president of the Historical Society of West Windsor (HSWW).

“A lot of people just don’t know it exists,” Ligeti said of the cemetery. Why? That history is nearly as old as the cemetery itself. In 2024, a committee assembled by the HSWW discovered that Schenck-Covenhoven was not owned by anyone.

“Legally, it has no owner,” Ligeti said. “We did title searches, contacted attorneys, and it’s pretty conclusive that it’s legally not owned by anyone. Cemetery stewardship had been previously done by various associations over the years, but they stopped existing decades ago.”

“The cemetery is a legally separate ‘orphaned’ plot not owned by any entity,”
he added.

Ligeti and the HSWW began to broach the goal of the cemetery’s preservation. After working with a stakeholder group of restoration experts, the University, the Princeton Baptist Church, and the requisite team of lawyers, the HSWW formally assumed stewardship in 2025.

The stakeholder group began assessing the trees, discussing restoring the gravestones, and gauging the extent of the repairs needed for the wall surrounding the grounds. Regarding the roughly 130 gravestones, Ligeti said, some are unsalvageable, but the HSWW plans on installing placards.

The cemetery features around 130 gravestones, representing between 80-100 burials from the early- to mid-18th century to 1941 with the oldest legible gravestone dating to 1746. The stones vary in size and material. Many are professionally carved, but some were amateur-made. Some are still legible, Legeti said, but many others are eroded or even broken, toppled, tilted, or sunk below ground.

“We have no evidence that anyone has done any significant gravestone repair over the years, and since they were made with older, less durable materials, this is an opportunity to finally give them the restoration they need,” he said.

Colonial Roots

In 1693, William Penn — Pennsylvania’s founder — purchased over 6,500 acres here, northwest of present-day Penn Lyle Road. He and his sons kept it as an investment property for decades but never lived here. In 1737, they sold it to two Dutchmen from Monmouth County: Garret Schenck and John Van Couwenhoven. That year, the term “Penns Neck” began to appear in writing in reference to this vast territory.

Van Couwenhoven and Schenck divided the land into multiple large estates among their children, who settled here. Over several decades, these colonists established the Penns Neck neighborhood and replaced native forests and meadows with vast farms stretching across the horizon.

They built this family ground sometime between 1737 and 1746. The gravestones reveal many surnames: Covenhoven, Cruser, Dye, Hight, Martin, Oppie, Rowland, Schenck, Slayback, Smith, Stout, Van Dyke, and Voorhees.

From the early 1800s onward, cemetery ownership passed through the Schencks, ending in 1849 with Clarissa Schenck. However, in 1877, a group of neighbors incorporated the Penns Neck Cemetery Association to ensure its upkeep. One of its founding members, Eliza Schenck, had the perimeter fieldstone wall built in 1876. Two years later, Clarissa Schenck formally deeded the burial ground to the Association.

The perimeter wall shows signs of aging. Additionally, the University periodically manages the weeds and most graves are identified with specific individuals, Ligeti said, citing various surveys since the 1880s.

In addition to gravestone and perimeter wall repair, the HSWW identified several long-term goals, including tree maintenance, landscaping with possible lighting, and programming that could include historical markers, archaeology, research, and tours, Ligeti said.

“We see this as something very attractive from a public perspective, and we’ve had a number of people express interest in joining the effort and being more broadly interested in the town’s history,” he said.

That, however, requires fundraising, and Ligeti said if the level of interest he has received in this restoration is any indication, “we’re going to see the support. It’s going to take a community effort to restore one of our most historic sites for generations to come,” he said.

To learn more and to support the restoration, visit westwindsorhistory.com/pncem.html.