The municipal council in Princeton, New Jersey, has begun the process to acquire the historic former campus of Westminster Choir College – although the ownership of the property is in dispute.
NJ.com reported the council issued an ordinance to acquire the campus, with a wide variety of strategies — negotiation, purchase, condemnation and seizing through eminent domain are potential means to take ownership. A second ordinance was issued that appropriated $50 million for the acquisition and potential capital improvements.
The college was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1926 and was moved to Ithaca, New York, before coming to Princeton in 1932. The college merged with Rider University in 1992 and moved to the university’s main campus in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in 2021.
However, the ownership of the property is in dispute, with the adjacent Princeton Theological Seminary claiming it is the steward of the land. In the 1930s, Sophia Strong Taylor donated the property in Princeton to the choir college and named Princeton Theological Seminary as a steward of the gift with the stipulation that the seminary would take over the property’s ownership if Westminster Choir College ceased operating.
“The simplest answer is there are conflicting claims of ownership, which is the subject of current litigation between the Princeton Theological Seminary and Rider University,” said Kristine Brown, a spokeswoman for Rider University, who added, “We understand the municipality intends to use the property for public purposes, which we believe would be a good outcome for the property and the community.”
Photo: Jonathan Schilling / Wikimedia Commons
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The real estate attorney in 1992 should have caught a land title issue prior to the merger. If land was not conveyed then that would need to be disclosed. Someone didn’t do their Job well.