Lauraville is named for the daughter of John Henry Keene, who was a local property owner and businessman active after the American Civil War.

Weber's Park, a brewery, with adjoining picnic grounds and beer garden operated for many years along Harford Road in the Southern end of Lauraville, about opposite today's Overland Avenue.

[citation needed] This growth and improvement of the Harford Road transit service coincided with the rapid development of Lauraville as a residential suburban community.

[citation needed] In 1918, residents of Lauraville were incensed that the nearby Ivy Mill property, where Morgan State University would eventually be built, had been sold to a "negro college."

While Lauraville was built over a period of years by various developers, most of the houses are detached, single family frame or cedar shingle structures, similar in style.

[5] Lauraville is mentioned on the Baltimore-based HBO drama The Wire as the home neighborhood of fictional Baltimore Police Detective Jimmy McNulty.