Abbott Lawrence Academy (ALA) is a small, accelerated honors high school for students in grades 9-12 located at the historic North Common Education Complex in downtown Lawrence. Founded in 2015 with an inaugural ninth grade class, ALA was created to retain the best and brightest students of the city. ALA is the district’s first exam high school, admitting students each year through a rigorous application and entrance exam process, enrolling only up to 200 students per year. ALA offers students in Lawrence an opportunity previously unavailable to most: the chance to experience a rich and rewarding honors education in the tradition of the most prestigious independent schools in the country, free of charge. As part of the Lawrence High School campus, ALA is accredited by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Our Vision
Abbott Lawrence Academy fosters student growth and choice in an empowering environment. ALA is a close-knit community that offers a rigorous and personalized education within the Lawrence Public School District. Students will develop the skills and confidence needed to pursue their post-secondary goals, and they will graduate with the tools and mindsets to contribute to the world around them.
Our Mission
Abbott Lawrence Academy provides a rigorous education in a safe and nurturing learning environment that values hard work, determination, and community. In collaboration with families, local, and collegiate partnerships, ALA lays the groundwork for students’ college and career success. Ultimately, ALA students and alumni will be prepared for civic participation and community engagement.
Abbott Lawrence Academy Founder and Eponym
Abbott Lawrence Academy's Founding Principal
As a graduate from Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, Stacey Ciprich majored in history and secondary education, as well as serving as senior class president of the graduating class of 2007 and the National History Scholar of New Jersey.
Who is Abbott Lawrence?
Abbott Lawrence was a prominent 19th-century industrialist, merchant, and philanthropist who led the founding of the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, which was named in his honor.
Features of the Academy
At Abbott Lawrence Academy, we like to say we are the "best of both worlds." While students enjoy the benefits of a small learning community in an historic location, they also have access to many of the great amenities offered by a larger campus -- at the Lawrence High School and Merrimack College campuses.
North Common Educational Complex
Building History
In 1847, the first 17 high school students in Lawrence were taught on the first floor of the Oliver School. The first high school building was built in 1867. By the 1890s, the School Committee was considering a new building for the high school. 310 students were housed in a building meant for 200. In 1896, they were looking for an enrollment the next year of 475. In 1898, land owned by the Barbour family, Ellen J. McCarthy, Mary A. Roberts, Lucy H. Stowe, and the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society was seized by eminent domain. The corner stone was laid June 17, 1899 along with a box sealed in the stone containing documents pertaining to the city and the school. The new school was located at the corner of Lawrence and Haverhill Streets and was considered the last word in high school design. John Ashton, the architect of the Tarbox School, was chosen to design the school. It was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The third floor library boasted a stained glass window donated by the Lawrence Women’s Club in honor of Emily Wetherbee, a Lawrence High School graduate and (later) teacher. An extension that followed Haverhill Street to the west was built with John E. Allen as architect; it was occupied in 1924 and named the James D. Horne Annex after the high school’s headmaster from 1894 to 1923. The annex style maintained a similar style and used the same yellow bricks. The dome, originally housing an observatory, blew off during a powerful windstorm in 1973. A new addition was added to the back of the building in 1982. The addition included a gym, auditorium, and cafeteria. There were also major renovations to the rest of the building that same year.
The North Common Educational Complex currently houses Abbott Lawrence Academy on floors 2 and 3.
Lawrence High School Campus
The Lawrence High School Campus opened its doors to students in 2007. The campus is home to a field house, where many of our athletes practice and play, and a performing arts center, which hosts shows put on by our award-winning musical theater program.
Performing Arts Center
The Lawrence High School Performing Arts Center (PAC) is located on the Lawrence High School Campus. The PAC is the venue for our award-winning musical theater program.
Merrimack College
Merrimack College, our Early College partner institution, boasts a 220-acre campus comprised of dozens of buildings, including:
- McQuade Library
- Nursing Center
- Merrimack Lecture Hall
- Arcidi Center
- O’Reilly Hall
- Cushing Hall
- Sullivan Hall
- Academic Innovation Center
- Laurence J. and Roberta M. Palmisano Hall
- Crowe Hall
- Gladys Sakowich Campus Center
- Rogers Center for the Arts
- Merrimack Athletics Complex
- Austin Hall
- Collegiate Church of Christ the Teacher & Student Union
- Student apartment buildings, townhouses and residence halls
- Louis H. Hamel Health Center
