A local history based organization is fighting the school’s efforts.

The Guardian reports.

Princeton university grounds become legal battlefield over new construction

Historical activists are refusing to surrender in their efforts to prevent the development of a privately owned portion of a revolutionary war battlefield in New Jersey.

The Princeton Battlefield Society is hoping to halt the plans of the Institute of Advanced Study, which is starting work to construct faculty housing. They want to preserve the site where George Washington’s troops defeated the British at the battle of Princeton in January 1777, and remain hopeful the institute will agree to a standstill until the legal battle which has played out over the past few years comes to a conclusion.

“The reason for our interest in the property is its extraordinary historic significance,” said Jim Campi, communications director for the Civil War Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit devoted to the preservation of America’s battlegrounds.

“This is not your run-of-the-mill historic site, but where the charge that decided the battle was both launched and struck the British lines. This property is – without exaggeration – where the battle that arguably saved the revolution was decided.”

The activists, though, have suffered some legal setbacks recently against the plan for eight townhouses and seven single-family homes, including the state supreme court’s decision to not delay the institute from starting work on the project to be built on land adjacent to Princeton Battlefield State Park.