Lawrenceville School was founded in 1810 at Lawrenceville, New Jersey. It was originally founded as the "Maidenhead Academy" and has been known as the "Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School", the "Lawrenceville Academy", or the "Lawrenceville Classical Academy". The school's current name, "Lawrenceville School", was settled on during the school's refounding in 1883.
The curriculum of the Lawrenceville School includes programs in the visual arts, computer science, performing arts, music, religion, mathematics, history, science, English, and a variety of foreign languages. Opportunities for foreign travel and study are also available.
The school has a unique "House System" similar to those in British boarding schools and popularized by the house system at the fictional Hogwarts school in the Harry Potter books.
Lawrenceville's "Circle" is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designed by preeminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Lawrenceville School was featured in the 1910 Owen Johnson novel The Varmint which recounts the school years of the fictional character Dink Stover. In 1950 the novel was made into the motion picture The Happy Years which starred Leo G. Carroll and Dean Stockwell and was filmed on the Lawrenceville campus.
The school was formerly a strictly male school but this restriction was lifted in 1985 and the school is now a coed institution and has recently appointed its first female head master.