She was launched by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Squantum, Massachusetts, 29 September 1919; sponsored by Miss Margaret Large, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Lardner; and commissioned 10 December 1919.

Assigned to Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, Lardner departed Newport, Rhode Island, for Cuba where she participated in tactical exercises, battle practice.

On 28 August she joined the reserve fleet at Charleston, South Carolina to train Naval Reservists until departing for Jacksonville, Florida, in April 1921.

Between August 1927 and September 1929, Lardner continued operations along the Atlantic coast with annual winter cruises to the Caribbean, often training Naval Reservists.

Lardner decommissioned at Philadelphia 1 May 1930, in accordance with the London Naval Treaty, and was struck from the Navy Register 22 October 1930.