Blair was the first and most emblematic of these structures. Soaring high above the Pennsylvania railroad station, which then ran to the bottom of the stairs of Blair Tower, this building was both an entrance and a barrier to the campus. As the first structure seen by anyone arriving in Princeton by train , Blair immediately set the tone of the university -- aloof, academic, cloistered; blatant in its assertion of its English roots.

This was entirely appropriate for a rural university. Harper's magazine noted that the Collegiate Gothic style at Princeton "lends itself picturesquely to the requirements of a rural university, where ancient elms, level stretches of greensward, and masses of clinging creeper add a charm of natural grace unattainable in a city or town."