As construction for the Arts & Transit Neighborhood moves the Dinky southward and makes the trek to Forbes College even more inconvenient, it is hard to imagine a time when tracks reached the steps of Blair Hall. The building’s enormous arch served as a grand entrance to campus (pictured left) until 1918, when the station was moved south to make way for the dormitories now known as the junior slums.
There is little remaining physical evidence of the station except for an old mile marker that dutifully sits between Little and 1901-Laughlin Halls (above). The “0” on the south side indicated the train was zero miles from Princeton, and the “3” on the north side indicated it was three miles to Princeton Junction. According to University spokesman Martin Mbugua, no easement requires the University to keep the marker, so it appears to be kept for historical purposes.
The Dinky may have once ran to Blair Hall, but if things come together, it might run some day soon all the way to Palmer Square, in the form of a streetcar: http://walkableprinceton.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/princeton-tram-possibility/
The ‘trek’ from Forbes also being known as a 10-minute walk. Princeton really is the school of hard knocks.