The site of Princeton was chosen as the county seat in 1814 by county commissioners William Prince, Robert Elliott, Abel Westfall, and William Polk. On February 14, 1814, the commissioners chose the name Princeton by casting lots among themselves, and William Prince was the fortunate one, giving the town its name. Surveyors Ebenezer Buckingham and John Breathitt surveyed and laid out the land, and the plat was recorded on March 28, 1814. The first courthouse, a one story salmon brick common mortar building, was constructed on the courthouse square in 1814. It was replaced by a larger brick building in 1843 at a cost of $9,000 dollars, and that building was replaced by the present Romanesque Revival courthouse in 1884 at a cost of $188,661 dollars. Princeton's early growth was due in part to its location at the halfway point between Evansville and Vincennes, where stagecoach line passengers stopped for dinner and some stayed overnight. Growth was further encouraged when the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad passed through Princeton in 1851 and the Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis Railroad came to town in 1870.