Lawrenceville agrees to settlement to acquire old LHS property

Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 11:17 AM

By Steve Anderson

The city of Lawrenceville will soon be the owners of the former Lawrenceville High School property located at 503 Eighth Street in Lawrenceville.

The city council met in special session Wednesday afternoon and after entering into executive session with city attorney Mike Neal emerged after approximately 20 minutes and voted 7-0 to accept a settlement offer to purchase the location from its current owners.

The city will pay $50,000 as part of the terms of the acquisition and will be responsible for the future upkeep and eventual demolition of the dilapidated structure, the former school grounds and the parking lots. It is anticipated that EPA loan funding will be used by the city to cover the costs of the demolition work. It is hoped that the agreement can be finalized, and the takeover occur in a time period of 6 months to 1 years.

The former school was discontinued for use in 2013 when Lawrence Unit 20 opened its current new high school at 2200 James Street. It was sold by the district in 2014 and remained abandoned and fell into a state of disrepair. It caught fire and was gutted in 2017 and became a controversial eyesore for the city, who eventually went to court to try and get it cleaned up.

Mayor David Courtney says that the site is being planned as the eventual location for a new sanitary sewer plant