The Manchester and Lawrence Railroad ( the M&L) line ran from Lawrence, Massachusetts to Manchester New Hampshire. It opened in 1849 as an independent railroad but was soon leased by the Concord Railroad.
According to A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses, "the first North Lawrence Depot was a temporary wooden structure built in 1848 or 1849. A permanent depot, similar to Andover's was erected in 1851 on the M&L line at the corner of Broadway and Essex Streets. This station was converted to a freight house when the third station, a Victorian Gothic structure made of brick and trimmed with freestone, was opened March 17, 1879. Designed by N. P. Bradlee of Boston, this large station included a seventy-foot clock tower and a three-track train shed on the north end.
According to Bill McCaffrey, "The 'grand depot' at various times was called 'Lawrence' or 'North Lawrence' or 'Lawrence - Essex Street'. In 1887 The M&L came under the control of the Boston and Maine Railroad.
In the nineteenth century most of the railroads that eventually combined into the Boston and Maine system were independent and there were many hitter rivalries among them. The Concord Railroad could get a more favorable rate division from the Boston and Lowell RR by threatening to divert; Boston bound freight to the Boston and Maine at Lawrence over the MM., Once the major New Hampshire Railroads merged into the Boston and Maine, the rate wars between the various New Hampshire railroads ceased and the M&L became a lightly used branch line.
The name of the North Lawrence station was changed to Lawrence in 1927. This station also closed in 1931 when a new station was built on the South side of the Merrimack River at the junction of the Western Route Main Line of the Portland Division with the Manchester and Lawrence Branch.