Princeton

Princeton is a village on Highway 2 in the south-east of Blandford-Blenheim, between Woodstock and Paris. Main Street South holds most of village life: Princeton Centennial Hall at number 35, the library and museum, and the village park, with two ball diamonds, a playground, a pavilion and a new accessible walking trail with outdoor exercise equipment. The Highway 403 passes just north of the village.

Princeton is one of the oldest settlements in the area. In the 1790s Thomas Watson and his nephew Thomas Hornor brought settlers to Blenheim Township, and a settlement had grown around Princeton by 1795. Long before that, the Van Besien site near the village was a palisaded Iroquoian village of about 900 to 1100 AD, studied by McMaster University in the early 1970s. Thomas "Carbide" Willson, who found a cheap way to make calcium carbide, was born on a farm near Princeton in 1860.

The census counts Princeton with the farms around it, so these figures are estimates for the village. They come to about 180 homes, nearly nine in ten of them single detached houses. About half were built in 1960 or earlier and about a quarter between 1961 and 1980. About one in six were built between 1981 and 2000, and a few in 2001 or later.

Highway 2 runs through Princeton, and the Highway 403 is a short drive north. Woodstock City Hall is about 27 km away by road, a drive of about 24 minutes. Paris and Brantford are to the east along the 403.

The Princeton park at 35 Main Street South has two ball diamonds, a canteen, bleachers, a playground, a covered pavilion, a multi-purpose pad for sports such as basketball, and a new accessible trail with outdoor exercise equipment. Princeton Centennial Hall on the same site has a main hall with a stage and a smaller fireside room. The Princeton branch of the Oxford County Library and the Princeton museum share a building on Main Street South, and the Princeton War Memorial, built in 1998 from stone from local farms, honours local veterans of both world wars.

• Blenheim and District Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for Princeton, in Drumbo.
• Huron Park Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Princeton, on Cromwell Street in Woodstock.
• Roch Carrier French Immersion Public School — Grades 1 to 8 in French immersion. The public French immersion school for Princeton, on Sloane Street in Woodstock.
• St. Michael's Catholic School and St. Patrick's Catholic School — JK to Grade 8. The Catholic elementary schools for Princeton, on Devonshire Avenue and Parkinson Road in Woodstock.
• Holy Family French Immersion Catholic School — SK to Grade 8 in French immersion. The Catholic French immersion school for all of Oxford, on Oxford Street in Woodstock.
• St. Mary's Catholic High School — Grades 9 to 12. The Catholic secondary school for Princeton, on Juliana Drive in Woodstock.
• Woodstock Collegiate Institute — Grades 9 to 12. Thames Valley's public French immersion secondary school, on Riddell Street in Woodstock.