University floats idea of renaming Alexander Street “Peter Lewis Boulevard”

Princeton’s Alexander Street may get a new name — “Peter Lewis Boulevard” — if the Town Council endorses a name change suggested by the university. The university first floated the idea at a private meeting held last year between President Eisgruber, Council President Mia Sacks and former Councilwoman Heather Howard, who is employed by the university.

According to sources who prefer to remain unnamed, the heirs of the late university alumnus and insurance magnate Peter Lewis have offered a conditional gift of $1.2 million if the university could arrange to rename Alexander Street. “Peter Lewis worried about wayfinding to the Lewis Arts Complex,” said a source connected with the university, “and believed that renaming would make the new campus easier to find for people driving from Route One.” The source said Lewis had a vision “of one of those green highway signs reading: ‘Peter Lewis Boulevard; Lewis Center for the Arts.’” Lewis’s heirs would like to make that vision a reality.

Princeton’s Alexander Street is under municipal jurisdiction, but the county has responsibility for the bridge. The portion of Alexander north of the bridge is in West Windsor and is called Alexander Road. Alexander Street was named after Alexander Hamilton, one of many Princeton byways named after Founding Fathers, including Washington Road, Jefferson Road, Madison Street and Witherspoon Street.

Andrew Koontz, a former county freeholder and Princeton Borough Council member, said the proposed name change should be a “non-starter.” He said he doubted West Windsor would “agree to a vanity name change for a now deceased university donor however beloved the donor might be.”

Heather Howard did not respond to a request for comment. Council President Sacks said council is always open to conversation with the university and would “of course let the university make a case for the name change if it wanted to pursue it,” particularly if “financial incentives were involved.”

Councilman David Cohen said he was unaware of the proposal but noted that street name changes are not cost-free. “You would be shocked,” he said, “at the hidden costs to taxpayers of this sort of change. Somebody has to design and pay for new signs and new directories, not to mention the staff time involved.” So “certainly if this comes up the taxpayers should not have to foot the bill.”

Former Councilwoman Jo Butler, a leader in Princeton’s Coalition for Responsible Development, said “Anyone who cares about Princeton history should oppose the plan.” She asked, “Can you imagine asking residents of Alexander Street to change their addresses to ‘31 Peter Lewis Boulevard?’” Butler also said the proposal could open the “floodgates” to developer requests for name changes. “The next thing we’ll see,” she said, “is a request to change Mercer Street to Herring Drive and to change Witherspoon Street to Hillier Road.”

Councilwoman Lambros said she could see an argument that the name change could bring in more business for the town. “There would be lots of publicity,” she said, “and people would be curious to see the Lewis Center and curiosity is always good for our local businesses.”

Councilman Leighton Newlin said he had not been told about the proposal. “Off the top,” he said, “my view is that if a Princeton street name is going to hit the dust we shouldn’t pick the one named after Hamilton.” “Sounds to me,” he said, “like something out of the current anti-immigrant playbook.”

Mayor Freda said he hadn’t been given a heads-up and had no current plan to put this issue on the council’s agenda.

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