Lynn, MA

Learn More About Lynn, MA

The City of Lynn was settled by colonists from the New England Company inSalem in 1629. Early settlers relied primarily on family farming and shellfishing although an iron works was established in the city in 1643.Leather tanning became a major industry very early on and by 1775 therewere a string of tanneries along Black Marsh Brook, called Tanney Brook, tothe harbor. When the MBTA was extended from Boston to Salem in 1837, itwent through Lynn, encouraging growth in the shoe industry and a factorydistrict was created as well as shoe workers’ neighborhoods ofboardinghouses. The Civil War brought great prosperity to the city andfurther growth of the shoe factories. Even the fires of 1869 and 1889,which destroyed much of the central business district from Central Squareto Broad Street, didn’t stop expansion. The gutted buildings were simplyreplaced by five and six story shoe factories.While Lynn developed its major industrial capacity, handsome summer estateswere being built along its shore by the middle of the 19th century. Theseestablished the city as a fashionable Boston resort area. At least a dozenlarge shore estates were built and other land was subdivided forincreasingly suburban residential development. When Lynn Shore Drive wasopened in 1910, it encouraged the development of high rises to takeadvantage of the shore view.Lynn, now the largest city in Essex County, is an urban manufacturing andcommercial center, densely populated and culturally diverse. Residents areproud of the city’s long history, which parallels the history of NewEngland as a whole.