Part of The Next Generations’ Yeoman Farmers.

Dating from the 1790s, this farmstead was built on the larger Clarke lands, probably by a member of the extended family. In 1696, Benjamin Clarke (see Benjamin Clarke House) purchased 1,200 acres from the Proprietor of East Jersey, making him Princeton’s second largest landowner. Throughout the next two centuries, this land was divided and developed among Clarke heirs. It seems possible that this particular house was part of a tenant farm that the Clarkes rented out. It is now one of the few spots in Princeton where you can still look out over working farmland and visualize the 18th-century yeoman farming landscape.

Post-18th-Century Namesake: Updike Farmstead is named for the Updike family who purchased it in the late nineteenth century

Original Sections: three-story center section of the house

Present Use: Historical Society of Princeton headquarters