Lawrence Station is a passenger rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Haverhill Line located in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The station is located at the Senator Patricia McGovern Transportation Center on 211 Merrimack Street in the city's Gateway District. The modern station, which opened in 2005, is the latest of seven distinct stations located in Lawrence since 1848.HistoryEarly stationsThe city of Lawrence was chartered in 1846, several years after the Boston & Maine Railroad opened. In 1848, the original tracks from Ballardvale to North Andover were abandoned and the route was relocated to the modern routing through Lawrence south of the Merrimack River. That year, the B&M set a land speed record for railed vehicles by operating the first authenticated 60 mph (96.6 km/h) train, The Antelope, from Boston to Lawrence, travelling 26 miles in 26 minutes.The first station in Lawrence, South Lawrence, was a wooden structure built in 1848 just north of Salem Street. It was enlarged just two years after construction, then replaced in 1872 by a brick depot between Salem and Andover Streets.In 1849, the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad was built from South Lawrence depot north through Lawrence proper. A new station was located at Essex Street and named North Lawrence; the original wooden building was replaced in 1851 by a permanent building (similar to the depot at Andover) then in 1879 by a Victorian Gothic brick structure. In 1880, the Boston and Lowell Railroad extended the 1848-built Lowell and Lawrence Railroad to a new depot north of the Merrimack River on Canal Street. After the B&M absorbed the B&L in 1887 the depot became redundant, though it saw service until 1918. Passenger service on the Lawrence & Lowell ended in 1926.
