Encompassing 255,000 square feet (23,700 square meters) and around fifty stores and restaurants,[1][2] the center is known for its distinctive mid-century design.[3][4] It is also known for its community-based atmosphere and appeal.[1] It exists as a rectangular series of low-profile, single-story structures with roofs that protrude to give shelter walkways, with a large open courtyard in the middle.[3] At one end is a two-level anchor store that has housed Bamberger's, Epstein's and McCaffrey's Food Markets in turn. It has a large surrounding parking area, as well as a bus stop that is serviced by both New Jersey Transit and Princeton's Muni bus.[5][6]
The center has long featured a weekly concert series held in its courtyard during summers.[2] As Princeton's Town Topics newspaper has noted, the relaxed atmosphere but still well-populated nature of the center has attracted people to it: "the Shopping Center is a proven anomaly ... the open-air, California-style facility, unlike most malls and front-lot strip malls, is being celebrated in a time when suburban developmental stylings are perhaps not necessarily in style."[7]
History
The center was built in the Princeton Township portion of the Princeton area (in the era when it was a distinct entity, before merging with Borough of Princeton in 2013).[8]
The developer was Theodore Potts, who in 1950 obtained township planning approval for the project.[9] The project overall encompassed 28 acres (11 ha), with 8 acres (3.2 ha) going to an adjacent recreational area,[10] now known as Grover Park.
Construction of the anchor store, then known under the name L. Bamberger & Co., began in May 1951.[11] At that point Bamberger only had stores in Newark and Morristown; another in Plainfield was also in development at that point.[12]
When it opened on September 9, 1954, Bamberger's occupied two stories and 60,000 square feet, significantly smaller than other Bamberger's locations.[11] As a result, it only carried a portion of the lines that the larger stores had, such as the flagship location in Newark;[11] among the lines missing were furniture, glass, and silver.[13]
Nevertheless, Bamberger's officials always liked the store and kept it going.[11]
The Bamberger's there finally closed in 1980, in part because a large Bamberger's had opened as an anchor store at Quaker Bridge Mall, only five miles away, in 1976.[11][13]
It was replaced in the Princeton Shopping Center later that year by Epstein's, a New Jersey family department store chain whose generally smaller size and orientation towards personalized service was a better fit for the center.[13] Epstein's also had the belief that it was better to be a bigger store in a smallish center, as opposed to being a run-of-the-mill store in a large mall.[14]
Epstein's moved out in 1990, relocating to the Princeton MarketFair.[14]
It was replaced in 1992 on the first floor of the anchor building by McCaffrey's Food Markets, a regional chain of supermarkets in southeastern Pennsylvania and west-central New Jersey.[15] McCaffrey's became what one writer termed the "go-to supermarket" in the immediate area.[8] The second floor of the building has a McCaffrey's eating area and also the locations of a yoga facility, a ballet school for youngsters, and other offices.[16]
For many years the center was owned by George Comfort & Sons,[1] a New York-based company.[3]
The center underwent a renovation in 2007, under the supervision of Rosen Johnson Architects.[3] The redoing of the center involved the digging up and replacing many of the courtyard's trees and gardens, to the consternation of some longtime shoppers.[9]
In 2012, the center was sold to Edens, a South Carolina-based company, which pledged to keep up the community atmosphere which had made the center a success.[1]
Gallery
A summer concert in the courtyard of the center
Street entrance to the center; the two-story anchor building is seen on the left
The inner courtyard of the center and its covered walkways
