McPherson and fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Hackett Fischer have proposed a compromise that would permanently preserve about 14 acres and allow 15 housing units, screened by trees, to be built on seven acres.
The plan, accepted by the institute, calls for archaeological work to recover artifacts, a 200-foot buffer zone next to the park, interpretive markers to help visitors understand the battle, and removal of trees and brush not present in 1777.
But opponents have rejected the proposal, and the two sides are locked in a battle over the future of the tract with its connections to the past.
Final arguments will be made before the Princeton Regional Planning Board at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The hearing is the fourth and may be immediately followed by a decision.
"It's a really thorny issue," said Cate Litvack, former director of the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area and a former mayor of Princeton Township. "We hope the building doesn't happen because this was a pivotal battle."
"We're looking for common ground," she said.
The Princeton battle "was a must-win for Washington, and it's a must-win for us," said Jerry Hurwitz, president of the Princeton Battlefield Society, a nonprofit organization that has opposed the housing proposal since it went before the planning board in 2003. "There are few preserved battlefields of the American Revolution. That's why this is a level-one priority."
The Princeton battle on Jan. 3, 1777, marked Washington's first victory over British regulars. His ragtag army defeated Hessian mercenaries at Trenton on Dec. 26, 1776, and was swept aside by Redcoats at the Second Battle of Trenton on Jan. 2, 1777.
