Glen Acres Historic Neighborhood

Glen Acres Historic Neighborhood. . , One of the nation’s pioneer integrated neighborhoods of the Civil Rights era., In the mid-20th century, housing discrimination was rampant nationwide, and it was both legal and common for realtors and homeowners to refuse to sell or rent to others based on race. This included Princeton, where African Americans were constantly excluded from moving into many places outside the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood., In 1954, a union of Princeton churches and locals formed the Princeton Housing Group to find marginalized residents homes, one at a time. In 1957, they hired Morris Milgram, who had just built two of the nation’s first planned racially integrated neighborhoods: Greenbelt Knoll and Concord Park, in Pennsylvania. Together, they unveiled two more in late 1957: Glen Acres in West Windsor and Maplecrest in Princeton., Maplecrest featured 25 homes on Walnut Lane and Dempsey Avenue, and Glen Acres 15 homes on Alexander Road and Glenview Drive. Glen Acres’ earliest families upheld an integrated ratio of six Black households to nine White by selling to those of the same race. The community retains its original vision, welcoming all regardless of identity., Glen Acres proved to a segregated society the value of integration. Neighbors formed lifelong bonds around a shared humanity, and its founding spirit still thrives. In 2025, weekly get-togethers continue and some original homeowners still live here. Glen Acres endures as a triumph of diversity in the face of adversity., Designed in 2025 with input from many original and current Glen Acres residents