The old South and West parishes of a 1646 town, with its schools on Andover Hill and its mill villages on the Shawsheen River, which kept the Andover name when the North Parish became a town of its own in 1855.

Essex County · Record checked October 12, 2026

36,569Population2020 census1
1646Became a townsettled in 1642 by John Woodbridge's company1
420 feetHolt Hillthe highest point in Essex County1
3/5Ballardvale flannelthe mill's share of the country's fine flannel, by its owner's count in 18832
51National Registerplaces, all still standing3

Andover on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Andover, Massachusetts in 2026, with Main Street, Shawsheen Village and Haggetts Pond

2026

Andover today

By KNOWOL

Shaded terrain from survey elevation data with Main Street, North and South Main Streets, Lowell, Haverhill and Union Streets, Shawsheen Village, Haggetts Pond, Ames Pond, Bakers Meadow Pond, and Ames, Aslebe and Boston Hills.4

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Andover

Ballardvale flannel

Ballardvale grew up around one mill on the Shawsheen River. An 1878 county history says the Ballardvale Mills made the first piece of fine white flannel woven by power in the United States, in 1836. In 1844 the mill's agent, John Marland, brought the making of delaines to the country, combing the wool by hand and printing it from blocks. In 1883 the owner told a committee of the Legislature that he employed 250 people and made $400 to $500 worth of flannel a day. Asked what share of the country's flannel of that quality he made, he answered three-fifths. The cloth was sold everywhere as Ballardvale flannels, and the river water, he said, was what let him finish it.526

A school in a carpenter's shop

Andover Hill was a rocky pasture when Samuel Phillips Jr. bought land there. A one-story carpenter's shop stood on it, thirty-five feet long, and he made it a schoolhouse. The free school he opened in 1778 was incorporated in 1780 as Phillips Academy. The Andover Theological Seminary followed in 1807 as a department of the academy, and a bookstore opened in 1809 to serve them, with its own press four years later. Abbot Academy, a school for girls, was founded in 1828. Merchant Benjamin Punchard, who died in 1850, left the town $70,000 for a free school open to every young person in Andover. The town hasn't stopped teaching since.789101112

Two parishes, then two towns

Andover began in what is now North Andover. As families moved south, the town was split into two parishes in 1709, and the South Parish built its own church on Central Street. Its old meetinghouse came down in 1835: the porch went to the mill village and became part of a house, and the pew walls became a front-yard fence west of the common. Farther west, people pushed for 55 years to have their own parish, mainly because the meetinghouse was so far away. They got it in 1826 and built the granite West Parish Church. In 1855 the old North Parish became North Andover, and the South and West parishes kept the name Andover.1131415

Through the years

25 moments from 1642 to today.

  1. 1642John Woodbridge and settlers from Newbury and Ipswich make the first permanent English settlement.1
  2. 1646Andover is incorporated as a town, likely named for Andover in England.1
  3. 1673By this year blacksmith Thomas Chandler has built the house that's now the oldest standing in Andover.16
  4. 1709The town is split into North and South parishes, and the South Church is built on Central Street.1
  5. 1775About 350 Andover men march toward Lexington on the morning of April 19.1
  6. 1778Samuel Phillips Jr. opens a free school in a converted carpenter's shop on Andover Hill. It becomes Phillips Academy in 1780.7
  7. 1789George Washington visits and stops at Isaac Abbot's tavern, the town's first post office.17
  8. 1807The Andover Theological Seminary is chartered as a department of Phillips Academy.9
  9. 1809Mark Newman opens the Andover Bookstore, by 1896 the oldest business in town.10
  10. 1809About this year Abraham Marland starts the first textile mill on the Shawsheen.18
  11. 1826The West Parish is set off and builds its granite church, now the oldest church standing in Andover.15
  12. 1829189 people sign the West Parish temperance pledge.19
  13. 1835Bishop B. B. Smith of Kentucky leads the first Episcopal service, the start of Christ Church.20
  14. 1835The old South Parish meetinghouse is torn down, and its pew walls become a front-yard fence.13
  15. 1836The Ballardvale Mills make what an 1878 history calls the first fine white flannel woven by power in the country.5
  16. 1836John and Peter Smith and John Dove start the flax yarn works that become the town's biggest employer.18
  17. 1844John Marland brings the making of delaines to the country at Ballardvale.5
  18. 1850Benjamin Punchard dies and leaves the town $70,000 for a free school.12
  19. 1853Bennie Pierce, the 11-year-old son of President-elect Franklin Pierce, is killed in a train wreck in town.1
  20. 1855The North Parish becomes North Andover, and the South and West parishes keep the name Andover.1
  21. 1858The brick town hall goes up on Main Street.21
  22. 1873Memorial Hall Library is built as the town library and a memorial to its Civil War soldiers.22
  23. 1883The Ballardvale mill owner tells legislators he makes three-fifths of the country's fine flannel.2
  24. 1917Andover answers a greeting from the Mayor of Andover, England, as the country enters the war.23
  25. 1922The American Woolen Company's mill opens in the rebuilt Shawsheen Village.1

Places to see

Places worth a visit in Andover today.

  • Shawsheen VillageNorth end of town. The woolen company's model village of the 1920s.
  • Phillips AcademyAndover Hill. Opened in a carpenter's shop, 1778.Visit their website
  • Stowe HousePhillips Academy. Harriet Beecher Stowe's longtime home.
  • BallardvaleOn the Shawsheen River. Mill village of Ballardvale flannel.
  • Shawsheen RiverAcross town. Power for the Marland and Ballardvale mills.
  • Haggetts PondWest Andover. The town's reservoir, circled by a trail.
  • Pomps PondToward Ballardvale. Named for Revolutionary soldier Pomp Jackson.
  • Charles W. Ward ReservationHolt Hill. The highest point in Essex County.Visit their website
  • Harold Parker State ForestIn town. State forest of woods and ponds.Visit their website
  • Roger's BrookEastern Andover. Named for Roger, who kept fishing rights.

On the National Register

21 of the 51 places in Andover on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters. See the full list of National Register places in Andover.3

  • Chandler-Bigsby-Abbot House

    Built before 1673 · Listed 1982 · 88 Lowell St.

    The oldest surviving house in Andover, built by Captain Thomas Chandler, a blacksmith and one of the town's original proprietors, on his sixty-acre farm. It was later remodeled in the Georgian style.16

  • Abbot-Baker House

    Built about 1685 · Listed 1982 · 5 Argilla Rd.

    One of Andover's oldest houses, supposedly built by a third-generation colonist.24

  • Osgood Farm

    Built after 1699 · Listed 1982 · 116 Osgood St.

    Built after the 1699 marriage of Stephen Osgood and Hannah Blanchard. In 1783 the Revolutionary patriot James Otis Jr., a guest here, was killed by lightning in its doorway. It served for some years as an inn and tavern.25

  • Central Street District

    Listed 1982 · Along Central St.

    The heart of Andover before the present center grew up. The South Church, the first church of today's Andover, was built here in 1709; its present building dates from 1861, beside the 1834 First Baptist Church and the Episcopal church.26

  • Benjamin Abbot House

    Built 1711 · Listed 1975 · 9 Andover St.

    The Abbot Homestead, a two-and-a-half-story frame house that stands close to busy Andover Street.27

  • Holt Farm

    Built 1714 · Listed 1982 · 89 Prospect Rd.

    Built by Timothy Holt on Holt Hill, the highest point in Essex County, on land granted to his grandfather Nicholas Holt. Much of the old farm is now part of the Ward Reservation.28

  • Abbot Tavern

    Listed 1982 · 70 Elm St.

    Isaac Abbot asked to keep a tavern here in 1776, and it hosted George Washington in 1789. It was the town's first post office, with Abbot its first postmaster. Its building date is uncertain.17

  • Academy Hill Historic District

    Listed 1982 · MA 28

    The campuses of Phillips Academy (1778), Andover Theological Seminary (1807) and Abbot Academy (1828). Foxcroft Hall of 1808 is the oldest building, and the Stowe House was remodeled by Harriet Beecher Stowe in the 1850s.11

  • Main Street-Locke Street Historic District

    Listed 1982 · Main Street and Locke Street

    A residential district north of Academy Hill, with houses from 1819 on. One of them became Locke's Tavern in 1825.29

  • Andover Village Industrial District

    Listed 1982 · MA 28

    The mill village on the Shawsheen known locally as The Village, with Marland Mill buildings from the 1820s, the stone Smith and Dove mills and the Tyer Rubber works. The old Abbot Mills building burned in 2013 and was taken down, but the district stands.30

  • West Parish Center District

    Listed 1982 · MA 133

    The center of the West Parish, around the 1826 granite West Parish Church, the oldest church standing in Andover, its common and cemetery, and houses from about 1780 to 1920.15

  • Ballardvale District

    Listed 1982 · Andover Street at the Shawsheen River

    Andover's first planned mill community, a nearly self-contained village from 1835 to 1935 with mills, shops, churches, a school and a station. Its oldest mill, of brick with granite trim, dates from 1836.6

  • Arden

    Built about 1846 · Listed 1982 · 276 N. Main St.

    A Gothic Revival estate built for John Dove of the Smith and Dove flax mill, and later the home of William M. Wood, founder of the American Woolen Company.31

  • Benjamin Punchard House

    Built 1846 · Listed 1982 · 8 High St.

    Built by merchant Benjamin Punchard, who left his fortune to found the Punchard Free School. It has early Italianate details and now houses a bank.32

  • Sarah H. Harding House

    Built 1846 · Listed 1982 · 6-8 Harding St.

    Sarah Harding had this Greek Revival duplex built as housing for single women of modest means, which was uncommon at the time.33

  • Andover Town Hall

    Built 1858 · Listed 1982 · 20 Main St.

    Built of red brick not long after North Andover split off, designed by Theodore Voelkers to echo the town's mills.21

  • Memorial Hall Library

    Built 1873 · Listed 1982 · 2 N. Main St.

    Paid for by a bequest from John Smith, Peter Smith and John Dove, matched by the townspeople, as the town library and a memorial to Andover's Civil War soldiers. It's still the library.22

    Visit their website

  • Andover National Bank

    Built 1890 · Listed 1982 · 23 Main St.

    A brick Romanesque Revival bank by Hartwell and Richardson, opposite the town hall. It also housed the savings bank, the Merrimack Fire Insurance Company and the Masonic lodge.34

  • Third Railroad Station

    Listed 1982 · 100 School St.

    Andover's station building from 1907 to 1959, still standing after the trains moved on to a new platform.35

  • Orlando

    Built 1916 to 1917 · Listed 1982 · 260 N. Main St.

    A Spanish Mission style mansion with a green tile roof, a wedding gift to William M. Wood Jr. from his parents next door at Arden. It now houses the Lanam Club.36

  • Shawsheen Village Historic District

    Listed 1979 · MA 133

    The American Woolen Company's planned corporate village of the early 1920s, conceived by William Madison Wood, with mills, offices, and housing for executives and workers. Some older Frye Village houses were moved within it.37

In their words

“I find that Andover, in America, is of more importance than the same place in England.”

A letter from Andover, England, quoted in Historical sketches of Andover, 188038

“Every needed commodity is found in Andover to make it a pleasant home town.”

Glimpses of Andover, Massachusetts, 189639

“your namesake here has the proud record of being second to no city and town in Massachusetts in the progress we have made in preparedness.”

Harry M. Eames, chairman of the selectmen, writing to the Mayor of Andover, England, 191723

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Andover, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  2. Shawsheen water supply: hearing before committee on water supply and drainage, Massachusetts Legislature (1883), Internet Archive
  3. National Register of Historic Places listings in Andover, Massachusetts, Wikipedia
  4. Map of Andover, Massachusetts in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  5. Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts (1878), on the Ballardvale Mills, Internet Archive
  6. Ballardvale District, Wikipedia
  7. Andover, Massachusetts: Proceedings at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town (1897), on Phillips Academy, Internet Archive
  8. An architectural monograph on early wooden architecture in Andover, Mass. (1917), on Andover Hill, Internet Archive
  9. Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts (1922), on Andover Theological Seminary, Internet Archive
  10. Business history of Andover: anniversary souvenir number of the Andover Townsman (1896), on the Andover Bookstore and Press, Internet Archive
  11. Academy Hill Historic District (Andover, Massachusetts), Wikipedia
  12. Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts (1878), on the Punchard Free School, Internet Archive
  13. An architectural monograph on early wooden architecture in Andover, Mass. (1917), on the South Parish meetinghouses, Internet Archive
  14. Historical manual of the West Church and Parish in Andover, Massachusetts (1926), on the parish division, Internet Archive
  15. West Parish Center District, Wikipedia
  16. Chandler-Bigsby-Abbot House, Wikipedia
  17. Abbot Tavern, Wikipedia
  18. Glimpses of Andover, Massachusetts (1896), on the town's industries, Internet Archive
  19. Historical manual of the West Church and Parish in Andover, Massachusetts (1926), on the temperance society, Internet Archive
  20. Historical sketches of Andover (1880), on Christ Church, Internet Archive
  21. Andover Town Hall, Wikipedia
  22. Memorial Hall Library, Wikipedia
  23. Andover, Massachusetts, in the world war (1921), Internet Archive
  24. Abbot-Baker House, Wikipedia
  25. Osgood Farm, Wikipedia
  26. Central Street District, Wikipedia
  27. Benjamin Abbot House, Wikipedia
  28. Holt Farm (Andover, Massachusetts), Wikipedia
  29. Main Street-Locke Street Historic District, Wikipedia
  30. Andover Village Industrial District, Wikipedia
  31. Arden (Andover, Massachusetts), Wikipedia
  32. Benjamin Punchard House, Wikipedia
  33. Sarah H. Harding House, Wikipedia
  34. Andover National Bank, Wikipedia
  35. Andover station (MBTA), Wikipedia
  36. Orlando (Andover, Massachusetts), Wikipedia
  37. Shawsheen Village Historic District, Wikipedia
  38. Historical sketches of Andover (1880), on the town's name, Internet Archive
  39. Glimpses of Andover, Massachusetts (1896), on the town as a home, Internet Archive