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is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Lawrence Township in Mercer County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 4,081. Lawrenceville is located roughly halfway between Princeton and Trenton.
Lawrenceville is also known as the village of Lawrenceville as well as the Main Street Historic District, which was listed in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1972, one of the first registered historic districts in New Jersey .
Lawrenceville is located at .
The CDP has a total area of 2.7 km² (1.0 mi²), all land, according to the United States Census Bureau.
U.S. Route 206 changes its name to Main Street in part of Lawrenceville. The local historic district fronts along Main Street and U.S. Route 206 for more than two miles between Franklin Corner Road and an area slightly north of Fackler Road. Homes situated more than 250 feet from the road are excluded, however. One exception is the section of The Lawrenceville School known as the Circle and several other buildings in its vicinity, the oldest buildings on the campus. This area itself has been designated a National Historic Landmark .
Lawrenceville generally comprises the area contained within Lawrenceville-Pennington Road to the south, Fackler Road to the north, Keefe Road to the west, and U.S. Route 206, part of which turns into Main Street in Lawrenceville, to the east. The Lawrenceville School, across Route 206, is usually considered part of the village as well. Before tract development, beginning in the early 1970s, Lawrenceville was broadly defined as stretching two to three blocks back from Route 206. The boundary became less clear as residential developments replaced farmland behind the historic village.
Lawrence Township is occasionally and mistakenly referred to as Lawrenceville. 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.
The U.S. Postal Service agreed to designate the ZIP code of 08648 as Lawrence Township in fall of 2007. A township resident appeared before Township Council in July, 2007, to request to designate the 08648 ZIP code for Lawrence Township. Council approved a resolution in support of the request that was then forwarded to the U.S. Postal Service. Township officials had fought, off and on, for the change since 1969, when then-U.S. Rep. Frank Thompson tried unsuccessfully to convince U.S. 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. In 1973, voters approved a nonbinding referendum to petition the U.S. Postal Service to adopt a single municipal post office address known as Lawrenceville for the entire township. The effort failed .
Lawrenceville is equidistant between Trenton and Princeton, as well as New York and Philadelphia. 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 .