The village of West Chelmsford grew large enough to sustain its own governance in 1729, and was officially incorporated as Westford that year on September 23.

[3][4] In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Westford primarily produced granite, apples, and worsted yarn.

[6] A weather vane made by Paul Revere sits atop the Abbot Elementary school.

By the end of the American Civil War, as roads and transportation improved, Westford began to serve as a residential suburb for the factories of Lowell, becoming one of the earliest notable examples of suburban sprawl.

Throughout the 20th century (and with the invention of the automobile), Westford progressively grew, continuing to serve as residential housing for the industries of Lowell, and later, Boston.

By the 1990s, Westford was home to offices for Cascade Communications (now part of Nokia), NETSCOUT, Red Hat, Samsung, Sonus Networks, Seagate, Iris Associates and many other technology firms, most located along Massachusetts Route 110, parallel to I-495.

The line currently serves as a major corridor of Pan Am Railways' District 3 which connects New Hampshire and Maine with western Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York.