Lawrenceville School was founded in 1810 as the Maidenhead Academy by Presbyterian clergyman Isaac Van Arsdale Brown.

[7] A successful merchant, he amassed a large fortune investing in railroads, importing tea and textiles, and exporting opium to China.

"[8] Upon his return to the United States, the trustees commissioned a new campus from Frederick Law Olmsted and Peabody and Stearns, which has since been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark District.

[17] In 1932, Lawrenceville sent 62 students to Princeton, nearly ten percent of the freshman class and more than the next two schools (Phillips Exeter and Mercersburg) put together.

[18] In the 1950s, the College Entrance Examination Board tested an early version of today's Advanced Placement program at Lawrenceville, Exeter, and Andover, with input from Princeton as well as Harvard and Yale.

[22][23] Lawrenceville admitted its first two African-American students in 1964, one year after the longtime president of the board of trustees (an opponent of integration) stepped down.

[citation needed] In 2001, The New York Times wrote that Lawrenceville was "[o]nce - and perhaps still - as much a symbol of the establishment as Far Hills or the Social Register," but was currently trying "to reinvent itself as an instrument of meritocracy rather than aristocracy.

In 2017, Alibaba founder Joseph C. Tsai '82 and his wife Clara Wu contributed the largest gift in school history.

[44][43] The landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted planned the campus and grounds, and the Peabody & Stearns architectural firm designed the buildings, including Memorial Hall (now Woods Memorial Hall), which the National Park Service cited for the "richness of [its] materials" and "the high quality of the decorative details.

[47] Students reside in four distinct groups of Houses—the Lower School, the Crescent (girls), the Circle (boys), and the Fifth Form (Senior) Houses.

Lawrenceville has 18 athletics fields, a nine-hole golf course, 12 outdoor tennis courts, 2 1⁄4-mile (400 m) all-weather and indoor tracks, a boathouse, a hockey arena,[52] and a ropes course.

Lawrenceville is affiliated with The Island School in Cape Eleuthera, The Bahamas, to which it sends students for semesters abroad.

[3] In the fall of 2014, L10 News, the school's weekly ten-minute newscast, was founded on Lawrenceville's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

[62] Annual student publications include The Lawrenceville Historical Review, the school's history periodical, Olla Podrida, the school yearbook; Lawrencium, the science research journal; and Prize Papers, a compilation of the best academic work in the English Department by that year's IV Form (junior) class.

[citation needed] Lawrenceville's rival is The Hill School of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, another member of the Mid-Atlantic Prep League.

[71] In the spring of 2015, the Lawrenceville Boys' varsity crew team won the MAPL League Championship, beating out Peddie, Hun, and Blair;[72] placed first at the US Rowing Mid-Atlantic Youth Championship;[73] and then went on to place 4th at the US Rowing Youth Nationals held in Camden, NJ.

[77] In the spring of 2008, the Lawrenceville boys' and girls' varsity track and field team completed its season undefeated, placing first in the NJISSAA and MAPL.

[78] On November 6, 2005, the Lawrenceville girls' varsity field hockey team defeated Stuart Country Day School 2–1 to capture their third straight Prep A state championship.

On November 5, 2006, the varsity field hockey team defeated Stuart Country Day School 1–0 to capture their fourth straight Prep A state championship.

[82] In May 2023, the boys' varsity lacrosse team won the Prep Nationals championship game over Brunswick School by a score of 14-13 in double overtime.

[83] Lawrentians in the arts include writers Owen Johnson, James Merrill, Frederick Buechner, and Bill Berkson; musicians Huey Lewis and Dierks Bentley;[84] and screenwriter Merian C. Cooper.

Those active in media and entertainment include author and ecologist Aldo Leopold (1904–1905),[85] socialite and Real Housewife of New York Tinsley Mortimer, and athletes Joakim Noah and Bobby Sanguinetti, and financial analyst Celeste Mellet.