Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River in the Merrimack Valley, with a 2020 census population of 89,143. It borders Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest and North Andover to the east, and with Salem it was a county seat of Essex County until the state abolished county government in 1999. The city was planned by the Essex Company, incorporated in 1845, and was itself incorporated in 1853, named for the industrialist Abbott Lawrence. It grew as a textile manufacturing centre and a destination for waves of immigrants, including Lebanese, Syrian, Lithuanian and Vietnamese families, and its products have also included electronic equipment, footwear, paper goods and computers. It has a humid subtropical climate classified Cfa under the Koppen system, and it is the birthplace of the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.