The small Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) station building in Rowley was in disrepair by 1961, and was later demolished.[2] Service to the station ended on April 20, 1967, when the B&M received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to discontinue all service on the line (which had been cut back from Portsmouth to Newburyport in January 1965); at that point, service beyond Ipswich consisted of only one daily round trip to North Station.[3] Both Rowley and Newburyport were, at the time, outside the MBTA's service district; the town of Newburyport signed a subsidy agreement with the MBTA, allowing it to continue to receive service, but Rowley did not, and its station closed.[3] Newburyport service continued to run until April 2, 1976.[4]
The current station opened on October 26, 1998, as part of the restoration of service on the Newburyport/Rockport Line between Ipswich and Newburyport.[5] As with Newburyport, the new station was built with a full-length high-level platform, which allows level boarding for all cars of even the longest MBTA trains.
