The Queens Campus or Old Queens Campus is a historic section of the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the United States.
The Queens Campus spans one city block on a hilltop overlooking the Raritan River. In 1807, the heirs of John Parker of Perth Amboy led by James Parker, Jr., a prominent local merchant and political figure, donated a six-acre apple orchard to the trustees of Queen's College and its grammar school. The college—which was renamed Rutgers College in 1825—built its first building, Old Queens, from 1809 to 1823. Old Queens was used for instruction, student chapel services, and housed members of the college's faculty. In the institution's early years, the building housed the college, its grammar school (until 1830), and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary (until 1856).
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Queens Campus contained seven buildings designed by architects John McComb, Jr., Nicholas Wyckoff, Williard Smith, Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, and Van Campen Taylor. These buildings were erected to accommodate the small but expanding liberal arts college's classroom instruction, student activities, faculty offices, chapel, library, and housing into the middle of the twentieth century. Six buildings remain and are used to accommodate the university's core administrative offices, a geological museum, the college chapel, and a former astronomical observatory that is no longer used. The Queens Campus was included on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The oldest building, Old Queens, was designated as a national landmark in 1976.
History
The Queens Campus contains the historic core of the Rutgers University community and houses the offices of the university's president and key administrative posts. The campus is located on one city block adjacent to New Brunswick's commercial district. This block is bounded by Somerset Street, George Street, Hamilton Street, and College Avenue. The six building that occupy the campus are the university's oldest structures and represent a range of nineteenth-century architectural styles. Due to its architectural and historical significance, Queens Campus was included on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1973, and on the National Register of Historic Places on July 2, 1973. Often evoked as a symbol of the university's heritage, Old Queens was listed as a National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976.
The hilltop on which Queens Campus was later erected was where Alexander Hamilton, then an artillery captain commanding sixty men of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery, placed his cannons to cover the retreat of George Washington's forces in late November 1776. After disastrous defeats at Long Island, Harlem Heights, and Fort Washington, Washington surrendered New York City to the British. British forces commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis under orders from Lieutenant General William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe pursued Washington as far as New Brunswick, where he and his troops forded the Raritan River and passed through New Brunswick on their way south into Pennsylvania. Positioned on the hilltop above the Raritan, Hamilton's artillery slowed the British advance and afforded Washington sufficient time to escape. One American combatant, Captain Enoch Anderson, remarked that, "A severe cannonading took place on both sides, and several were killed and wounded on our side." The British forces occupied New Brunswick for the next seven months, and a battalion of Hessian troops were encamped on the site. A historic marker erected as a gift of the Class of 1899 is located next to the chapel marking the location of Hamilton's battery.
A few years after receiving its charter in 1766, Queen's College began holding classes in a local tavern and students boarded at houses in the city. The Rev. Ira Condict became the school's third president in 1795, but financial constraints forced the college to close for several years. Condict focused on operating the college's grammar school until sufficient funds were raised to support the college's reopening.