the advancement of education for all coming time." By 1850, the school's library, established with a purchase of 86 new books in 1828, comprised 2,650 volumes, of which 2,400 were gifts of Amos Lawrence. Over the course of their lives, Amos and William Lawrence donated a total of nearly $65,000 in cash, scholarships, and property to the school (roughly equivalent to $1.83 million in 2013 dollars). In recognition of their significant generosity, Groton Academy petitioned the Massachusetts legislature in 1845 to change the school's name to honor their benefactors. On February 28, 1846, Governor George N. Briggs signed into law an act formally changing the corporate name of "The Trustees of the Groton Academy" to "The Trustees of the Lawrence Academy at Groton." Between 1801 and 1870, Lawrence Academy contributed fifty students to Harvard College and placed among the dozen schools which supplied the greatest number of students to Cambridge. As the 19th century progressed and more schools catering to the children of the elite ranks of Boston merchants and industrialists were established closer to Boston, that position gradually waned. The Academy also enjoyed close ties to other New England liberal arts colleges — particularly Dartmouth and Williams College — which themselves catered to the region's "older provincial elite". The gifts of the Lawrence brothers established four scholarships each for students to attend Williams College, Bowdoin College in Maine, and Wabash College in Indiana. Franklin Carter, president of Williams College, was the guest speaker at the academy's 90th anniversary celebration in 1883. In 1868, during a Fourth of July celebration, an errantly tossed firecracker burned Lawrence Academy's main schoolhouse to the ground. By soliciting "subscriptions," the building was replaced in 1869 at a cost of $24,000 (more than $406,874 in 2013). In 1956, amidst commencement exercises, fire once again destroyed Lawrence Academy's academic and administrative buildings. Following both fires, Lawrence Academy rebuilt; however, because of these incidents, it encountered financial difficulties through parts of the twentieth century, until the late 1970s. Lawrence was coeducational until 1898, when it switched to a boys-only student body. It remained single sex until 1971. Student life Campus Lawrence Academy is seated upon of rolling countryside, in Groton, Massachusetts, thirty-one miles northwest of Boston, eight miles south of New Hampshire. Architecturally, Lawrence's campus features a mix of historic Federalist-Era houses and Neo-Georgian academic buildings. From Lawrence's central quadrangle, one can see the outline of Mount