Lawrenceville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) within Lawrence Township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.

[14] Lawrenceville was founded as Maidenhead in 1697, as part of Burlington County in the colony of West Jersey.

The village was originally named for Maidenhead, a historic English town on the Thames River, about 30 miles west from London.

The petition said "... it must be the wish of every good citizen... to be relieved of the necessity of using a term which may offend the delicacy of modesty, or disturb the feelings of seriousness, or excite the sneers of the willing.

"[16] The Legislature officially changed the name from Maidenhead to Lawrence on January 24, 1816, at a meeting in John Moore's Tavern.

He recorded the moment in his diary, a portion of which was found years later in John Moore's Tavern, which is now a residential house at 2695 Main Street.

Before tract development, beginning in the early 1970s, Lawrenceville was broadly defined as stretching two to three blocks back from Route 206.

The confusion is partly caused because the local post office is located in the Lawrenceville CDP and the Postal Service once instructed Lawrence Township residents to use Lawrenceville, Princeton or Trenton as their mailing address.

Postal Service to adopt a single municipal post office address known as Lawrenceville for the entire township; The effort failed.

Postal Service authorities to grant a Lawrence name tag for the entire township, according to a letter on file at the Municipal Clerk's Office.

[19] Lawrenceville is equidistant between Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey, and approximately fifteen miles closer to Philadelphia than to New York City.

Major transportation corridors have passed through Lawrenceville since the town's inception, including the King's Highway, which in the 18th century approximated today's U.S. Route 206.

[20] The predominant highway and commercial corridor through Lawrence Township is U.S. Route 1, southeast of Lawrenceville.

Since World War II, Lawrenceville has become a commuter town, serving educational and corporate employment centers in Lawrence Township, in Princeton and Trenton, in the surrounding cluster of corporate and research campuses, and to a lesser extent in New York City.

There are no large businesses in Lawrenceville itself, but Lawrence Township is home to several large corporate facilities outside of the village, including the world headquarters of Educational Testing Service, offices for the Lenox division of Department 56, the main research facility for Bristol Myers Squibb, and the offices of the Peterson's division of Nelnet.

The village businesses share an organization, Lawrenceville Main Street, which organizes events, such as the Music in the Park series, the annual Jubilee, and Taste of Lawrenceville, and promotes the business district to visitors.

Lawrenceville was formerly home to a family grocery, hardware store, pharmacy, and, most famously, the Jigger Shop, which served generations of Lawrenceville School students as a school store and soda fountain.

A new Jigger Shop then opened at the Lawrenceville School and was located on the first floor of the Noyes History Building, until its relocation to the Irwin Dining Center in 2011.

After the demolition of the Irwin Dining Center in early 2023, the Jigger Shop was renamed to the Big Red Store and relocated to the newly built Tsai Field House.