By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
From 1687, when surveyor George Keith set out to draw the Province Line separating East Jersey from West Jersey — and later, Lawrence Township from Princeton Township — to 1991, when Adath Israel Congregation opened its doors, Lawrence Township’s history can be found on a 12-foot-wide panel at the Municipal Building.
The mural, which is located on a wall opposite the Planning and Engineering Department, was unveiled earlier this month in celebration of Lawrence History Month. It intersperses historic photographs with a timeline of events and was designed by Paul Schindel of Three Bears LLC.
The Lawrence Historical Society received a $2,865 grant from the Lawrence Township Community Foundation to cover the costs of the mural.
The mural shows maps of the Trenton and New Brunswick Straight Turnpike, which was opened in 1803 as a toll road and that is now known as Route 1/Brunswick Pike. It also shows the Princeton Branch Turnpike, which opened four years later as a toll road between Lawrence and Princeton and Kingston — better known today as Princeton Pike.
It acknowledges the Valley School, on the corner of Princeton Pike and Smithfield Avenue, which was Lawrence Township’s first public school back in 1832. The mural notes that Lawrence High School welcomed its first class of high school students in 1966.
The mural also traces the transformation of Lawrence from a farming community to a bedroom community — from developers Joseph Slack’s and William Wood’s decision to sell off lots in the southern end of the township in 1890, to the burst of residential development in the central part of the township in the 1950s and 1960s.
And among other snippets of history, it notes the formation of the Lawrence Township Police Department in 1924; the opening of the Lawrence Shopping Center in 1960; and the Educational Testing Service’s move to Lawrence in 1958 and E. R. Squibb and Sons’ move to the township in 1971.
"Unlike neighboring towns, Lawrence Township does not have a history museum," Township Historian Dennis Waters said. "We have a couple of terrific historic houses, but there is no place to go to and learn about the history of the township. That’s the gap we were trying to fill with this mural."
The idea for a mural emerged about three or four years ago, Mr. Waters said. Through conversations with Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun, the administration offered some display space "to do something," Mr. Waters said.
"It was just a matter of pulling things together," he said. "We applied for a grant (and received it). One of the interesting things about the mural is that it was done as a digital file. It can be reproduced, if another entity — the schools, the library or the Senior Citizens Center — wants one."
There were two pieces to the project, Mr. Waters said. One piece was determining just how much would fit into a 12-foot-wide display. Then, there was the issue of selecting photographs to give it a "visual image," he said.
Mayor Cathleen Lewis said the mural "looks wonderful."
It is nice that it can be available for children and visitors to the Municipal Building can come through the building and learn about Lawrence Township history, she said.

