Lawrence certainly was its own stand-alone town in the past, and still has a mill town identity, but the metro area has grown to meet it. And I can’t imagine anyone calling Andover and N. Andover anything other than suburbs. All three of those towns are part of the NSPC (North Suburban Planning Council), which, while not technically an official subregion of the central MAPC (Metropolitan Area Planning Council), nonetheless is an integral part of the greater metro area.
(exception: a not insignificant number of people - usually on the older side - still view their municipalities as “small towns” and deeply resent any change to its “historic small town character”, despite all evidence to the contrary. Source of this info: having served 6 years and counting on the Planning Board of my suburban Boston town.)
