The Barracks

Built by Declaration of Independence signer Richard Stockton, this stone house is likely Princeton's oldest surviving structure. During the Revolution it housed soldiers, and Washington's Trenton attack was planned nearby.

Every Christmas Eve at midnight, a young Hessian soldier appears at the fireplace. He smiles at whoever is in the room. Then he rises up the chimney and is gone.

The Barracks is Princeton's oldest surviving structure, with portions dating to around 1684 when Daniel Brinson built the original dwelling. The property passed to the Stockton family in 1696, eventually becoming part of the estate of Richard Stockton, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence. While Stockton built his grander home Morven nearby, this stone house earned its nickname when he quartered troops here during the French and Indian War. The building's military history continued during the Revolution, and in 1783, when the Continental Congress relocated to Princeton, both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison lodged within its modest walls.

The ghost dates to the desperate aftermath of Washington's famous Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware in 1776. Following the surprise attack on Trenton, Hessian soldiers -- German mercenaries fighting for the British -- scattered and fled toward Princeton. One young Hessian, described by witnesses as "a slight figure in a huge burlap coat" who looked more like a boy than a soldier, sought shelter in this stone house on Edgehill Street. Suffering from a chest wound sustained in the fighting, he collapsed before the fireplace and died trying to warm himself against the bitter winter cold.

He has come back every year since. Residents have described his peaceful demeanor -- he bears no malice, merely replaying his final moments of seeking warmth before death claimed him. His antiquated military uniform, his youthful appearance: all frozen in 1776.

In 1939, the Reverend Arthur Kinsolving attempted to exorcise the spirit using an old Church of England prayer book. It did not work. The ghost continued his annual visits undeterred. The homeowners at the time, Princeton trustee Lewis B. Cuyler and his wife Margery, accepted the presence peacefully, calling him "an amiable ghost." The family's children grew up with stories of their spectral houseguest, and Margery Cuyler later wrote a children's book, "The Battlefield Ghost," inspired by her experiences living in Princeton's oldest haunted house.

The Barracks remains a private residence today, though it features prominently on Princeton ghost tours. Tour operators note that the ghost's presence seems to have grown stronger rather than fading over the centuries. This young soldier's spirit appears determined to remain at the place where he drew his final breaths, forever seeking the warmth that eluded him on that fateful winter night.