On April 27, 1792, residents of the towns of Groton and Pepperell, Massachusetts,[2] influenced by the growing "academy movement" in the young republic, which sought to provide a broader and more practical education than that available in the traditional Latin Grammar Schools,[3] formed an association "for the purpose of erecting a suitable building, and supporting an Academy for superior educational purposes at Groton, Massachusetts."[4] The association received its charter from Governor John Hancock on September 28, 1793.[5] Originally, the school was called Groton Academy, but was later changed to honor the Lawrence family.
For the academy's first schoolmaster, the trustees selected Samuel Holyoke, a prominent composer. He was a graduate of Phillips Academy and Harvard college.
The trustees announced the opening of their academy with an advertisement in the May 25, 1793 edition of the Columbian Centinel, a Boston newspaper; this was somewhat premature, as the charter was not secured for another four months.
The advertisement expressed the values of the academy movement, reading in part:
This is to give notice, that a Public School is now opened in Groton, for the education of youth, of both sexes—in which School are taught the English, Latin and Greek Languages, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, the Art of Speaking and Writing, with Practical Geometry, and Logic.[4]
Classes commenced in 1794, with an enrollment of seventy-three students, primarily from Groton and the surrounding towns. Some, such as Thomas and Wyriott Alderson of Bath, North Carolina, came from farther afield.[4]
In 1838, alumnus Amos Lawrence, a son of founder Samuel Lawrence and a prominent Boston merchant and industrialist, began his patronage of the Academy with a gift of "books and philosophical apparatus," followed in 1839 by "a telescope and Bowditch's translation of Mécanique Céleste by Laplace," and $2,000 for enlarging the schoolhouse in 1842.[6] In 1844, Amos's brother William donated $10,000 to the school's endowment "for the advancement of education for all coming time."[6]
The First Parish Church is a landmark on Main Street in Groton. It stands at the northern end of Lawrence Academy's campus, but it is not associated with the school.
By 1850, the school's library, established with a purchase of 86 new books in 1828, comprised 2,650 volumes, of which 2,400 were gifts of Amos Lawrence.[7]
Over the course of their lives, Amos and William Lawrence donated a total of nearly $65,000 in cash, scholarships, and property to the school (roughly equivalent to $1.83 million in 2013 dollars).[6] In recognition of their significant generosity, Groton Academy petitioned the Massachusetts legislature in 1845 to change the school's name to honor their benefactors. On February 28, 1846, Governor George N. Briggs signed into law an act formally changing the corporate name of "The Trustees of the Groton Academy" to "The Trustees of the Lawrence Academy at Groton."[5]
Between 1801 and 1870, Lawrence Academy contributed fifty students to Harvard College and placed among the dozen schools which supplied the greatest number of students to Cambridge. As the 19th century progressed and more schools catering to the children of the elite ranks of Boston merchants and industrialists were established closer to Boston, that position gradually waned.[8] The Academy also enjoyed close ties to other New England liberal arts colleges — particularly Dartmouth and Williams College — which themselves catered to the region's "older
provincial elite".[8] The gifts of the Lawrence brothers established four scholarships each for students to attend Williams College, Bowdoin College in Maine, and Wabash College in Indiana.[6]Franklin Carter, president of Williams College, was the guest speaker at the academy's 90th anniversary celebration in 1883.[4]
In 1868, during a Fourth of July celebration, an errantly tossed firecracker burned Lawrence Academy's main schoolhouse to the ground. By soliciting "subscriptions," the building was replaced in 1869 at a cost of $24,000 (more than $406,874 in 2013).[6]
In 1956, amidst commencement exercises, fire once again destroyed Lawrence Academy's academic and administrative buildings. Following both fires, Lawrence Academy rebuilt; however, because of these incidents, it encountered financial difficulties through parts of the twentieth century, until the late 1970s. Lawrence was coeducational until 1898, when it switched to a boys-only student body. It remained single sex until 1971.
Paul Zukauskas, former Boston College football and Cleveland Browns player who coached at Lawrence Academy, leading the team to four consecutive ISL and two additional NEPSAC championships
^The Jubilee of Lawrence Academy at Groton, Standard Steam Presses, 1855.
^Inglis, Alexander. Principles of Secondary Education. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918
^ abcdSanderson, George A., ed. A General Catalogue of the trustees, teachers, and students of Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts, from the time of its Incorporation, 1793-1893. Lawrence Academy, 1893
^ abActs Relating to Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts. University Press, 1894
^ abcdeFinancial History of Lawrence Academy, John Wilson & Son, Cambridge, Mass., 1895.
^Catalogue of the Library of Lawrence Academy, Groton, Mass. 1850, S.J. Varney, Lowell, Mass., 1850
