Princeton Day School
Stuart Road Entrance of Princeton Day School, Princeton Township, Mercer County, NJ

The short trail is primarily a connector with Woodfield Reservation and Mountain Lakes. Combine with the other trails.

Directions:

From Philadelphia and the south:
Take Interstate 95 north across the Delaware River to Exit 7B (Lawrenceville/ Princeton) onto Route 206 north; drive approximately five miles north on Route 206 to Elm Road; turn left on Elm Road, which becomes the Great Road; proceed 1.6 miles and then turn left into the Princeton Day School campus; enter at Stuart Road Entrance and drive toward athletic fields; park in spaces along athletic fields.

From New York and the north:
Take the New Jersey Turnpike south to Exit 9. Follow Route 18 North for a very short distance and look for sign to Route One south (Trenton); take Route One south into the Princeton area; turn right onto Washington Road, and travel through three traffic lights; at the third traffic light turn left onto Nassau Street; proceed through three more traffic lights, bearing left onto Route 206 south just after the third light; proceed through another traffic light and then turn right at the next traffic light onto Elm Road, which becomes the Great Road; proceed approximately 1.6 miles and then turn left into the Princeton Day School campus; enter at Stuart Road Entrance and drive toward athletic fields; park in spaces along athletic fields.

History:

Dean Mathey (born 1890) was one of the most devoted, energetic and generous supporters of Princeton in modern times with a 65 year association with  the university.  He was born in a wealthy Princeton, NJ family and spent his boyhood summers in Grafton, Vermont. 

1899  --  a young woman named May Margaret Fine opened a school (the future PDS) in Princeton, New Jersey to prepare girls for college.

1912  --  Dean Mathey graduates with honors from Princeton. (He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.)

He built his fortune on Wall Street, becoming the Chairman of the Bank of New York.

1924  --  a small group of Princeton parents established an elementary school for boys, housing it in a building next to Miss Fine's School. The boys' school came to be known as Princeton Country Day School.

1927  --  Mathey came to live in Princeton.  He remodeled an old farmhouse on the property of the Drumthwacket estate (now home of New Jersey's governor) on Stockton Street.

1927-1931  --  he was an alumni trustee.

1931-1960  --  he was a charter trustee.

1930's  --  Dean Mathey acquired the property and built an estate here as Pretty Brook Farm.
He constructed the ponds on the property for the landscape value and so that his sons could skate on them.  

1960-his death  --  he was a trustee emeritus.

1965 -- the preparatory school for girls and the boys' Princeton Country Day School merged to become Princeton Day School. Mr. and Mrs. Mathey gave the building of the then recently opened Princeton Day Schools. (http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/documents/ newsom_hm_obit.shtml)

1972 --  upon Mr. Mathey's death, he left most of the property to Princeton Day School.  (A large part of the estate was sold for the development of the Pond View residential housing development).

1983  --  Mathey College dedicated.

(Source: A Princeton Companion, Alexander Leitch, pgs. 320-321; http://web.princeton.edu/sites/mathey/history.htm)

Trail:

The white-blazed trail goes from the parking area southwest passing three ponds on the right, crossing Cradle Rock Road and ending at Pretty Brook Road (1.1 miles).  There is a short connector path to the trails in Woodfield Reservation between the first and second ponds.  

The trail is a connector with the Mountain Lakes area and Woodfield Reservation. It connects with the Stuart trail running from the Great Road to Mountain Lakes North.

(Source: Central New Jersey Trail Association; http://www.njtrails.org/trailguide.php?TrailID=38)