Explore Andover Stories

Andover Stories

Since 2010, volunteers from throughout the community have researched and written Andover Stories for the Andover Townsman.

To date over 60 people have contributed stories from pre-European settlement through the 20th century.

In 2013, we published the first 52 Andover Stories in book form, available for purchase through the Lawrence Eagle Tribune.
Use this page to explore Andover's history by clicking on a date on the time line, or exploring different themes and topics.

Where will your curiosity take you?

Save Town Hall - 1980s

10/17/2018

What to do with downtown Andover and the Town House was a recurring theme in mid-20th century Andover. The 1963 Town Meeting vote against comprehensive Urban Renewal saved the whole of downtown, but the Town House remained a target for another 20+ years. With the Urban Renewal plan defeated in 1963, the Town of Andover still had major issues to address. The fire station behind the Town House, the police station in the back of the Town House, and the warren of Town offices packed into the Town

Save Town Hall - Urban Renewal 1958-1963

10/17/2018

The second floor hall in the Town House was in steady use from 1858 until 1936 with lecture series, town meetings, graduations, performances, and homecoming celebrations. But use of the Town House hall declined after 1936, when Memorial Hall Auditorium opened around the corner on Bartlet Street. Then as the need for additional municipal office space grew, spaces in the Town House were renovated and divided up into offices. In 1959, to create more office space, the second floor hall was

Andover Stories

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1900

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1940

Save Town Hall - 1980s

Save Town Hall - Urban Renewal 1958-1963

Life on Essex Street

Macartney’s Menswear

It's Prom Time!