In the late 1600s, Nassau Street (then King's Highway) was a major traveling route between the Raritan River and the Delaware River. In the mid-1700s, located halfway along the route between New York and Philadelphia, the town of Prince-Town provided an overnight stay for travelers and began to grow along Nassau Street.

In 1756, the College of New Jersey, as Princeton University was then known, was relocated from Newark to Prince-Town with approximately 70 students.