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A Brief History of Andover

​​1646 Settlement of Andover
The original settlement of Andover was in the old center of what we now call North Andover, where the first meeting house was built. (The two towns separated in 1855.) Home lots were assigned by status and measured four to ten acres with meadow, wood lot, and land for farming. However the lots were not contiguous, and could often be miles away from the center of town. Settlers began to build houses away from the center and meeting house, closer to their farm land was, settling along rivers and established dams and mills. Settlers made the long trek back to the center of town of church services and town meetings.
 
Andover was a frontier town on the edge of vast  wilderness. Packs of wolves would attack the village. European settlers were fearful of attacks by the native population. Unfamiliar with the Indigenous culture, the Puritan settlers considered the native population to be “agents of the Devil" and built garrisons to protect the new settlements. One log garrison house was built on what is today Central Street.

​Reference: Juliet Haines Mofford, Andover Massachusetts: Historical Selections from Four Centuries

Map of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Andover Center for History & Culture
97 Main Street
Andover, MA 01810
978-475-2236

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The History Center is funded by individual, foundation, and corporate donations and receives no Town of Andover funding.

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