Rutgers Then and Now: Two Centuries of Campus Development, a Photographic Odyssey

Rutgers University has come a long way since it was granted a royal charter in 1766. As it migrated from a parsonage in Somerville, to the New Brunswick-sited Sign of the Red Lion tavern, to stately Old Queens, and expanded northward along College Avenue, it would both compete and collaborate with the city that surrounded it for room to grow.

Rutgers, Then and Now tells this story, proceeding through ten sequential development phases of College Avenue and Piscataway campus expansions--each with its own buildings and physical layouts--that took place over the course of 250 years. It delivers stunning photographic and historic documentation of the growth of the university, showing ＂what it was and appeared originally＂ versus ＂what it is and looks like today.＂ Among other in-depth analyses, the book compares the diminutive geographic scale of today’s historical College Avenue Campus--once the entirety of Rutgers--to the much larger-sized (in acreage) Busch Campus. Replete with more than 500 images, the book also considers the Rutgers campuses that might have been, examining plans that were changed or abandoned. Shedding light on the sacrifices and gifts that transformed a small college into a vital hub for research and beloved home for students, it explores how Rutgers grew to become a world-class university.

JAMES W. HUGHES is a university professor and distinguished professor, and dean emeritus of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His books include the coauthored Population Trends in New Jersey and the coedited America’s Demographic Tapestry: Baseline for the New Millennium (both Rutgers University Press).

DAVID LISTOKIN is a distinguished professor and associate director of the Center for Urban Policy Research at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His many books include the coauthored Population Trends in New Jersey (Rutgers University Press).

RICHARD L. EDWARDS is chancellor emeritus, a university professor and distinguished professor, as well as dean emeritus of the School of Social Work, Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He is the author or editor of numerous books and journal articles.

JONATHAN SCOTT HOLLOWAY is the twenty-first president of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is the author of The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans.

REV. MICAH L. McCREARY, M.Div., Ph.D., LCP is the president of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary and RCA General Synod Professor. He is the author of Trauma and Race: A Pathway to Well-being.