North Andover.

North Andover is really two towns in one, and that is a big part of its charm. Around the tree-lined Common in the Old Center you will find one of the prettiest colonial streetscapes in Essex County — steepled churches, antique homes, and stone walls that trace back to the town's earliest days. A couple of miles north, the downtown stretch of Main Street has a completely different energy: brick mill-era storefronts, locally owned restaurants, and the converted Davis & Furber machine works that anchor the Machine Shop Village neighborhood.

The housing stock covers a remarkable range for a single town. Buyers can choose among center-entrance colonials and true antiques near the Common, walkable village homes downtown, mid-century neighborhoods off Route 125, and newer executive-style construction in the rolling country near Lake Cochichewick — the great freshwater lake that supplies the town's drinking water and frames some of its most coveted addresses. Condo and townhouse communities, many carved from former mill and estate properties, give downsizers and first-time buyers a foothold as well.

Commuting is more flexible than many buyers expect. Interstate 495 crosses the middle of town with its own exits, Routes 114 and 125 tie into I-93 and the North Shore, and while North Andover has no commuter rail stop of its own, the MBTA Haverhill Line is minutes away at Andover station and Lawrence's McGovern Transportation Center, with direct service into Boston's North Station. MeVa, the Merrimack Valley's permanently fare-free regional bus system, runs local routes through town as well. Add Merrimack College's lively campus, Brooks School on the lakeshore, and the farm stand at Smolak Farms, and you have a town that balances pace and polish about 25 miles north of Boston.

North Andover Public Schools take students from their first classroom days at the Anne Bradstreet Early Childhood Center through five neighborhood elementary schools — Atkinson, Franklin, Kittredge, Sargent, and Thomson — and on to North Andover Middle School and North Andover High School, home of the Scarlet Knights. Students may also apply to Greater Lawrence Technical School in neighboring Andover. On the private side, Brooks School, a co-ed boarding and day school, occupies a striking campus along Lake Cochichewick, and St. Michael School offers a parochial option for younger grades. Merrimack College, an Augustinian institution that now competes in NCAA Division I athletics, lends the Route 114 corridor a college-town feel, and Northern Essex Community College operates campuses nearby in Haverhill and Lawrence.

North Andover occupies the northwest corner of Essex County, with the Merrimack River tracing much of its northern boundary. The town borders Andover to the west, the city of Lawrence to the north, Methuen and Haverhill across the river, Boxford to the east, Middleton to the southeast, and North Reading to the southwest. The Old Center sits about 25 miles north of downtown Boston and roughly 30 miles from Manchester, New Hampshire, keeping both city paychecks and southern New Hampshire getaways within easy reach.