Our History

Princeton Junior School began in 1983 with twelve preschool students and four teachers in a church basement. In the development of the School’s mission, the founders, Juliana McIntyre and Helen Craven, adopted certain educational premises from the former Miss Mason’s School, where they both had taught.

Over the years, our steadily increasing enrollment led us to “grow” elementary level classes in several facilities while seeking a permanent home. In 1992, after a long search, we purchased a six-acre parcel of farmland on which to build our schoolhouse (see photo at right). In 1998, the doors opened to welcome 125 students ranging from three-year-olds to fifth graders.

Now, more than twenty-five years later, Princeton Junior School is a thriving community of children, parents, teachers, staff, trustees, grandparents, alumni, alumni parents and close friends, all working together to carry on a tradition of excellence in education.

A Message from Our Founder, Juliana S.C. McIntyre

If you lead a child early in the morning to the beach where wet sand is deeply etched and tidal pools are gleaming with shells, you will catch a glimpse of the magnifying power of discovery.  You will see not only the child's initial delight in the discovery of varied shells, but also his/her growing desire for revelation of secrets that the ocean alone has known.  You may discover in yourself  a longing to search, to reach and to know more.

So it is at Princeton Junior School, where the chambered nautilus shell symbolizes the child's spiraling quest for new knowledge in its multifarious forms.  We invite you to lead your child to this school during the dawn of his/her life when things begin to appear, to be revealed and understood.  The discovery of ever-increasing opportunities will become a process into which he/she will wade with confidence, be the tide high or low.  Our Headmaster, faculty and staff await you in the morning light.

Welcome!