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Lynn is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 89,050 at the 2000 census. An older industrial center, Lynn is home to Lynn Beach and Lynn Heritage State Park. Currently, Edward "Chip" Clancy, Jr. is serving his second term as Mayor. History
The area known as Lynn was first settled in 1629 by Edmund Ingalls (d. 1648) and incorporated in 1631 as Saugus, the Nipmuck name for the area. The name Lynn was given to the to the area after King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, in honor of Samuel Whiting. Colonial Lynn was a major part of the regional tannery and shoe-making industries which began in 1635. The boots worn by Continental Army soldiers during the Revolutionary War are thought to have been made in Lynn. The shoe-making industry drove urban growth in Lynn into the early nineteenth century.[1] This historic theme is reflected in the city seal, which features a colonial boot. Lynn would be incorporated as a city in 1850. On May 21, 1852, after Lynn's cityhood, the northern section of the city, which was growing as a resort town attracting wealthy patrons seceded from Lynn and became the town of Swampscott. While the two municipalities continue to have strong ties, Lynn headed in an industrial direction, while Swampscott took a more upscale maritime and suburban direction. Despite industrial expansion as a mill town in the early 20th century, Lynn began to decline in the latter half of the century (the population peaked at 99,000 in 1950). As happened in many older Massachusetts urban centers, the city was plagued by an increase in crime. This trend earned Lynn the following taunts, the first half of which is well-known throughout New England to this day:
and:
Lynn's woes were exacerbated by several large fires in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including a devastating inferno among former shoe factories at Broad and Washington Streets on November 28, 1981. The blaze destroyed 17 downtown buildings undergoing redevelopment, with property losses totalling in the tens of millions of dollars. The site has since been largely redeveloped into a satellite campus of North Shore Community College. Despite its image in the late 20th century, Lynn remains home to some of the jet engine division of General Electric, a major employer, as well as West Lynn Creamery (now part of Dean Foods's Garelick Farms unit) and Durkee-Mower, makers of "Marshmallow Fluff." In the very early 1990s, the city of Lynn created an advertising campaign to improve the city's image. This was the "City Of Firsts" campaign. "Lynn Firsts" include:
Later, some of these claims were found to be inaccurate or unprovable. For example, the first air mail delivery in the U.S. occurred on Long Island, and the first baseball game under artificial light seems to have actually occurred in Indiana. While the jet engine claim is legitimate, the engine was heavily based on a prior British design. Some Lynn firsts not included in the campaign:
The twenty-first centuryIn the early 2000s, a number of new development projects in Lynn have helped the city experience a renaissance. Industrial buildings which were formerly vacant have been converted into loft spaces by real estate developers, and bought by young home-buyers who seek the urban lifestyle of Boston proper, but can't afford the higher prices of Boston's South End and similar neighborhoods. City Hall is encouraging the community's resurgence with new antique-style lighting, signage, brickwork, and a multipurpose municipal football stadium. The North Shore Spirit professional baseball club plays in Lynn at renovated Fraser Field. Lynn has also become home to one of the largest Russian communities in the North Shore. The first wave of immigration began in the early 1990s when Jewish people in Russia were granted refugee status by the American government. 'Historical Sites & Museums:' Research Tips
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