Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Princeton, WV

Princeton is an incorporated city and the county seat of Mercer County in southern West Virginia, and it is part of the Bluefield micropolitan area.

Princeton was named for the Battle of Princeton in New Jersey, where General Hugh Mercer, the namesake of Mercer County, was mortally wounded; when the county was formed in 1837, William Smith donated an acre and a half of land for a courthouse on the site.

Princeton was incorporated on February 20, 1909.

During the Civil War, Princeton was burned on May 1, 1862, to keep its supplies out of Union hands, and the Battle of Princeton Courthouse, also called the Battle of Pigeon Roost, was fought nearby on May 17, 1862; the McNutt House is the only building in the city that survives from that era.

The 2020 census counted 5,872 residents in Princeton, down from a peak of 8,393 in 1960.

The 2020 census counted 2,664 households and 3,091 housing units in Princeton.

Princeton covers about 3.05 square miles at an average elevation of roughly 2,400 feet in the Allegheny Mountains.

Although it lay east of the main coalfields, Princeton grew with southern West Virginia's coal economy after the Virginian Railway made it headquarters of the railroad's New River Division, and the Princeton Shops became a major local employer.

Most of the former Virginian Railway shop buildings in Princeton were demolished by 2006, but a full-scale replica of the railroad's two-story Princeton passenger station was built to house the Princeton Station Museum, devoted to the city's railroading heritage.

Princeton's nickname is "The Heart of Mercer County."