Built 1730 NJRHP # 1738 Opened 1730 Phone +1 609-924-8144 ext. 106 Added to NRHP 25 January 1971 | NRHP Reference # 71000503 Designated NHL July 17, 1971 Area 2 ha Architectural style Georgian architecture | |
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Location 55 Stockton Street, Princeton, NJ Part of Princeton Historic District (#75001143) Address 55 Stockton St, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA Hours Open today · 10AM–4PMSunday10AM–4PMMondayClosedTuesdayClosedWednesday10AM–4PMThursday10AM–4PMFriday10AM–4PMSaturday10AM–4PM Similar Princeton Battlefield, Princeton Battle Monument, Princeton University Chapel, Princeton University Art Muse, Delaware and Raritan C Profiles | ||
Morven, known officially as Morven Museum & Garden, is a historic 18th-century house at 55 Stockton Street in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It served as the governor's mansion for nearly four decades in the twentieth century, and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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History
In 1701, Richard Stockton purchased, from William Penn, the 5,500-acre (22 km2) property. His grandson Richard Stockton (1730–1781) had 150 acres, on which, in the 1750s, he built the house that his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton named "Morven", after a mythical Gaelic kingdom in Ireland.
Commodore Robert Stockton (1795–1866) later lived in the house that was built on the property. Robert Wood Johnson II, chairman of the company Johnson and Johnson, leased the home after Bayard Stockton died during 1932.
In 1944, New Jersey Governor Walter E. Edge purchased Morven from the Stockton family. The sale was subject to the condition that Morven would be given to the state of New Jersey within two years of Edge's death. Edge transferred ownership of Morven to the state during 1954, several years before he died.
Morven served as the New Jersey's first governor's mansion from 1944 until 1981.
During 1982, the New Jersey Governor's Mansion was re-designated to Drumthwacket. Morven was adapted as a museum.