Evelyn was founded by clergyman Joshua Hall McIlvaine, a Princeton alumnus and former professor at the institution.

[1] 8 Evelyn Place was home to former Borough of Princeton Mayor Barbara Boggs Sigmund and her family for 45 years.

With a 50-to-1 ratio of men to women at Princeton, Evelyn students were subject to considerable harassment from their male counterparts.

Police were employed to keep the men off the Evelyn campus, though the male students would still stand outside the gates chanting for the women to let them inside.

Princeton and Evelyn students were rumored to have trysts in abandoned houses, a reputation which caused some families to ban their daughters from attending.