Lawrenceville Female Seminary Collection

The Lawrenceville Female Seminary began in 1834 when James Harvey Porter, a classics and language instructor at The Lawrenceville School (known then as Lawrenceville High School), resigned his position to open a seminary for young women in Lawrenceville, N.J. with his wife, Jane Barlow Porter. The Porters built a boarding and schoolhouse on Main Street, north of the Presbyterian Church in Lawrenceville.

Though James Porter died not long before the school was scheduled to open, Mrs. Porter refused to abandon the project. She gave herself the title of "Lady Principal" and recruited the principal of Lawrenceville High School, Alexander Hamilton Phillips, to serve as the male principal. According to the school catalog, "The object of this School is the Christian culture of young ladies, as to all that is usually included in the term education in its widest and best sense." Under the guidance of Principal Phillips, the curriculum at the Lawrenceville Female Seminary bore a close resemblance to the curriculum at Lawrenceville High School. Students at the seminary study grammar, reading, languages, letters, science, and mathematics, as well as other subjects.

After the retirement of Phillips in 1837, Mrs. Porter became the sole principal of the seminary though she soon retired in 1839 and sold the school to Henry D. Phillips. The seminary changed hands again in 1850 when it was purchased by Rev. Charles William Nassau. Though the seminary grew under Nassau's leadership, it was eventually sold to the expanding Lawrenceville School in 1883. The original Lawrenceville School Seminary schoolhouse building stills stands on The Lawrenceville School grounds.