Old Queens Building, New Brunswick
- Identifier
- NJS-PLC-00020
- Place Type
- College or university
- Located In
- New Brunswick
- Description
-
Old Queens was the first building constructed for Queen's College (now Rutgers University). For the first forty years since the founding of the college in 1766, instruction took place at a local tavern and in the homes of the school's patrons. By 1808, the college finally raised enough money for the construction of its first permanent building. Rutgers history books (and the historical plaques posted around Old Queens) assert that construction began in April 1809 when President Ira Condict ceremoniously laid the cornerstone for the building. But this story obscures the hard labor that was necessary before the president could lay the cornerstone with all the pomp and circumstance proper for such a momentous occasion.
In fact, construction workers, including enslaved laborers, broke ground on the building in the summer of 1808. Among those who toiled to lay the foundation for the building was an enslaved man named Will, and the nearby walkway was named Will's Way in his honor in 2017.
Old Queens now houses central administration offices, including the Office of the Chancellor of Rutgers University–New Brunswick. It is called Old Queens because the school was known as Queen’s College from 1766 until 1825, when it was renamed for Henry Rutgers. This building originally served as the residence hall, classroom space, library, and offices all in one. - Locality
- New Brunswick
- County (Modern)
- Middlesex County
- State or Province
- New Jersey
- Country
- United States of America
- Organization
-
Rutgers University
- Latitude
- 40.498750
- Longitude
- -74.446250
- References
-
Jesse Bayker, Christopher Blakley, and Kendra Boyd, “His Name Was Will: Remembering Enslaved Individuals in Rutgers History,” in Scarlet and Black: Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History, ed. Marisa Fuentes and Deborah Gray White, vol. 1 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2016), 58–81, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1k3s9r0.7.
- Wikipedia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Queens
- Related Resource
- Virtual Tour: Around Campus with Scarlet and Black
- Keywords
- National Register of Historic Places
- Image Rights
- John McComb rendering of Old Queens. Courtesy of Rutgers University, Special Collections and University Archives.
- Record Contributor
- Jesse Bayker
- Linked Events
-
To filter events by location, name, date, and other criteria, visit the Events browsing page.
Event location is Old Queens Building, New Brunswick: