The Original Route

Earlier this year, I learned that the B&M's original route did not go anywhere near Lawrence, I'm sure some of you are already aware of it but this is new to me. I've spent the last month plus, (in quarantine) trying to track down the original alignment. If some of you already know it's course, please feel free to correct me.
My findings are as follows, starting south going north: The old alignment turned slightly east, about where Market Basket distribution warehouse is located, off Ballardvale St, in Andover. The original ROW, can be seen on google maps, just north of Lowell Junction Rd, going through wetlands west of River St. The ROW then becomes Hillcrest St, before disappearing into the woods (believe it or not, you can kind of make out the line in the trees on Google maps), with ROW going through what is now the campus of South Elementary School. North of that, the ROW becomes an access road for the Andover Recreation Park. From there, it went through Spring Grove Cemetery and given that this section was abandoned in the 1840's, I'm not sure how much (if any) of a cemetery there was. Continuing it looks like it follows on the shoulder (east side) of Abbott St, at least until the intersection of Phillips St. Now the variety of maps that I used, all much newer than the 1840's, gets very tricky beyond this point. I can only guess and say that the ROW went straight through downtown Andover, which probably looked nothing like it does today, which makes it so hard. I can only assume by drawing a straight line from the intersection with Abbott and Phillips, to a point behind Enterprise Bank that splits rte. 28 and High St. From this point I was able to see traces again alongside High St, until the intersection with Harding St and Walnut Ave. From here you can drive the original ROW: High St & Waverly Rd. At the end of Waverly Rd, at Main St, draw a straight line right to the north end of Sutton Pond, then continue that same straight line to Charles St. From this spot the ROW joins back together with a curve that started around this spot.

You are right on Waverly Road in North Andover, it follows the original route.

Probably the reason why the original B & M route did not go through Lawrence was because there was no Lawrence around 1837 when originally constructed!

When was the original ROW built and how long was it in service before they altered the route to go through Lawrence?

The Andover & Wilmington Railroad was chartered in 1833 and open in 1836. The original route was in service for about 12 years, by then it had already merged with the B&M.

Thanks for the info, that is longer than I thought.

I was really surprised when I read that the original row was abandoned in the 1940's as I thought that was around the earliest railroads.

I also find it interesting that Lawrence that there was no Lawrence in 1837 but within a decade there was. I'm assuming Lawrence is why the original route was altered.

Yes, the line was moved to serve Lawrence, which was orginally part of Methuen (north of the river) and Andover (south of the river) and was just a farming community in the 1830's. That all changed in 1845, when they built the canals, dammed up the river and started building the mills.