Plan by Institute in Princeton Clashes With a Park’s Revolutionary War Past

The Battle of Princeton, which some historians say changed the course of the Revolutionary War, unfolded on Jan. 3, 1777, when Gen. George Washington rallied his troops to defeat the British Redcoats. The battle was fought in difficult conditions, and though it was fierce, the fighting ended quickly.

Another battle here — just a musket volley from Princeton Battlefield State Park — has raged for years and is now coming to a head. This struggle is over a far more mundane disagreement: a housing development.

The construction site is next to the state park. But the problem, according to preservationists and some historians, is that the site sits on land that happens to be the precise location of the battle’s climactic moment, the spot where Washington staged a daring counterattack.