The Lawrence Union Free School District 15 was officially established on January 24,
1891. There were not more than a dozen teachers and only 286 students in the district's
first years. Classes were held in a two-room schoolhouse on Broadway and Frost Lane with
branch one-room schools in Lawrence and Northwest Point (now known as Inwood).
In 1893 the Frost
Lane Schoolhouse was sold, and the first Lawrence High School, housing both high school
and elementary grades, was built on Central Avenue. The district celebrated its very first
commencement in 1898 with all of two students taking center stage as graduates. By the
turn of the century, enrollment had risen to 794 students district-wide. It gained its
first superintendent in 1906. Fred deLancy King, previously supervising principal, became
superintendent of schools in 1906 under the Superintendency of Schools Act. He served
until 1918.
Torn down in 1913, a
new Lawrence High School was built. During the building's construction students attended
class in the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire House. The new high school went on to graduate a
class of 13 students in 1915.
As the century progressed, the district continued to grow. The Inwood School was
demolished in 1920 and replaced with the Number Two School. Additions to that building
would be made in 1927 and 1958. In 1922, the Cedarhurst School was also demolished and
replaced with Number Three School, now the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway
(HAFTR) on Central Avenue.
Also in 1922, a wing
was added to the high school, giving it 16 academic classes and six vocational ones. It
also housed the district superintendent's offices. By 1927 Number Five School had taken
its place among the district's school buildings. It received an addition in 1931. It was
also in the 1930s that the district was ready for a new high school building, constructed
on Broadway in 1936 at a cost of $825,000.
The next major
expansion took place in 1955 when Number Six School was built. Then, in 1960, the present
Lawrence High School was constructed. It opened with a capacity enrollment of 1165
students. Among the latest additions made to the district's size came in 1955 when the old
high school building (then known as the junior high, now the Middle School) was almost
doubled in size. Then, with the demographic changes the 1970's brought, the Number Three
School building was sold in 1978.
Today, Lawrence Public Schools has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students
receiving an outstanding education in its seven buildings. Through the years Lawrence has
pursued high standards of quality in education and been recognized on a local, state and
national level for having Schools of Excellence. In recent years, Lawrence students and
staff have been earned such prestigious honors in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search,
the Disney American Teacher Program and the National Endowment for the Humanities Younger
Scholar Program.
It's been a long road from 1891 and a distinguished one. The district has come a long
way, thanks to the efforts of its dedicated faculty and staff and through the support of
the Board of Education and the community. As it enters its second century, Lawrence Public
Schools stands ready to face the challenges of the future and will undoubtedly continue to
thrive.
The Lawrence Public Schools celebrates over a century of excellence in
education. A look back at the past 100 years shows that the district has had a rich
history and that its future will be even more successful.