Morven (residence)

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Morven
(U.S. National Historic Landmark)
Image:MorvenNJ.jpg Morven in 2006.
Location:	Princeton, New Jersey
Coordinates:	40°20′50.97″N, 74°40′1.03″W
Built/Founded:	1730
Architect:	Unknown
Architectural style(s):	Georgian
Designated as NHL:	July 17, 1971
Added to NRHP:	January 25, 1971
NRHP Reference#:	71000503 ^[1]
Governing body:	State

Morven is a historic house in Princeton, New Jersey.

It was originally part of a 5,500-acre (22 km²) tract purchased from William Penn by Richard Stockton in 1701. In 1754, his grandson, Richard Stockton (1730-1781), signer of the Declaration of Independence, acquired 150 acres (0.6 km²) of this land and built the house. His wife, Annis Boudinot, was a poet and named their house "Morven" after a mythical Gaelic kingdom in a poem by Ossian. Commodore Robert Stockton (1795-1869) lived in the house. Robert Wood Johnson II, Chairman of Johnson and Johnson, was the first non Stockton to reside at Morven (1928-1944). He was followed by five New Jersey governors when Morven served as the state’s first Governor’s Mansion (1945-1981). In 1982, the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion was relocated to nearby Drumthwacket and Morven became a museum.