Sycamore Trees

Thought to have been named after the repeal of the unpopular Stamp Act and seen as traditional symbols of liberty, the two large sycamores on the front lawn of Maclean House were purchased and planted on the commission of the college trustees in September 1765. Today, two hundred years later, they are the oldest trees on campus.  The name “Stamp Act Sycamores”, however, is in fact a misnomer, as the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, several months after the college trustees had ordered the sycamores to be planted in the front of Maclean House. While the trees, today, stand for the commitment to Revolutionary ideals, they are located near the site where six slaves were auctioned off from the estate of Samuel Finley, the fifth President of Princeton.