History of Lynn, Massachusetts, USA

Journey back in time to Lynn, Massachusetts, USA

• 1629 - Lynn is settled and incorporated
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
  
• 1629 - The first tannery in the U.S. began operations in Lynn.
  
  
  
• 1839 - Lynn
  Lynn, Massachusetts
  Essex county. Lynn is one of the flourishing and beautiful towns in the state. It lies on a plain, surrounded by rising ground, except on the east, where it opens to Lynn bay, embracing the romantic peninsula of Nahant, with its beautiful beach, and Phillips' Point, both highly ...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• 1845 - LYNN. [Pop. 9,369. Inc. 1637.]
  Lynn, called Saugus by the Indians, was named after a town of the same name in England. The eastern part of Lynn still retains its original name of Swampscott.
  
  Lynn is the oldest town in Essex County, except Salem; and it is still the second in size, although Saugus and Lynnfield, of Es...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• 1850 - Lynn is incorporated as a city
  
  Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates
  
  
• 1854 - Lynn
  Lynn, a city and seaport of Essex co., Massachusetts, on the Eastern railroad, 9 miles N. N. E. from Boston. Lat. 42° 27' 51" N.. Ion. 70° 67' 27" W. It is situated on the north-eastern shore of Massachusetts bay, in the midst of the most varied and picturesque scenery. The beaches and Nahant, in th...Read MORE...
  
  
  
•  1860 - February 22 – Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages. The strike spreads throughout New England and eventually involves 20,000 workers.
  
  wikipedia.org
  February 22, 1860
  
  
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  Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound
  Made in Lynn, MA
  
  Lydia Estes Pinkham (February 9, 1819 – May 17, 1883) was an iconic concocter and shrewd marketer of a commercially successful herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" meant to relieve menstrual and menopausal pains. Although Pinkham's Vegetable Compound sold well to the general public, it was regarded by health experts as quackery... wikipedia
  
  Found at Old Drugstore, St Augustine, Florida
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• 1875 - Lydia Pinkham, a Lynn resident, was the first woman to use her image to sell a product. The Lydia Pinkham Vegetable Compound.
  
  lynnma.gov
  
  
• 1885 - May 19 - 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts)
  
  historyorb.com
  
  
•  1889 - $10,000,000 FIRE! A CITY GOES UP IN FLAMES. Lynn, Mass. Desolated. - Boston Subscribes Nearly a Million Dollars For the Sufferers.
  Lynn, Mass, the city of shoes, was visited Tuesday afternoon by the greatest fire in its history and with two exceptions the conflagration is the most disastrous which ever visited New England. The exceptions are the great Boston fire of 1872, which destroyed between three and four hundred millions ...Read MORE...
  
  
  
•  1889 - Accidentally Shot Dead
  LYNN, Mass., Nov. 27. - William F. Sartelle, of Worcester, Massachusetts, a performer in a dime museum here, was shot dead last night. He was performing a trick with a rifle, which he apparently loads with leaden bullets, and then requests some one to shoot at him, appearing to catch the bullet in h...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• Lynn Massachusetts, 1890
  LYNN is a manufacturing town on the seaboard in the extreme southern part of Essex County, 11 miles northeast of Boston, with which it is connected by a street railway, and by the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad and by the Eastern line of the Boston and Maine Railroad; the latter connecting i...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  St. Mary's Church, School and Rectory
  Postcard
  
• 1895 - Lynn
  Lynn, a city and seaport of Essex co., Mass, is pleasantly situated on Massachusetts Bay, 10 miles N.N.E. of Boston, and 5 miles S.W. of Salem. Lat. 42° 27' 51" N.; lon. 70°57'27' W. It is about 2 miles from the peninsula of Nahant, a place of summer resort, and is connected with Boston and Salem by...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Elastic Stockings
  
  Curtis & Spindell Co.
  38 Wyman Block
  Lynn, Mass.
  
  The Ladies' Home Journal
  April 1898
  Advertisement
  
•  1899 - SEIZED BY A LEOPARD. Lynn Boy Goes too Near the Cages at the Circus.
  The next time the Forepaugh-Sells Brothers circus visits Lynn, Mass., Frank Ducey, a 10 year old boy, will not be so much interested in getting a near view of the leopard.
  
  Frank was gazing at the animal when it sunk his sharp claws into the boy's face, and when the keeper sprang to the cage the l...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Washington Square showing Oxford and Women's Clubs, Lynn, Mass.
  Postcard
  
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  Lynn Beach, State Bath House, Lynn, Mass.
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  Lynn R. R. Station
  Postcard
  
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  Central Square. Lynn, Mass.
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  City Hall. Lynn, Mass.
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•  1903 - NOT KNOWN HERE. Railroad Man Killed At Lynn Said To Belong In Portsmouth.
  A Lynn dispatch of the 18th stated that a man named Moorehouse, an employe of the milk train, with his home at Portsmouth, was fatally injured on Thursday evening and later died at the Lynn hospital.
  
  It stated that his family had been notified and the body would be sent to this city.
  
  There is ...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Ocean Street
  Postcard
  
• 1906 - William Thomas Grant opens his first "W. T. Grant Co. 25 Cent Store" in Lynn, Massachusetts
  
  
  
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  Lynn and Nahant Roadway, The half-way Tree
  postmarked 1906
  Postcard
  
•  1910 - AGED WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH AT LYNN
  Lynn, Feb. 9. - While working around her kitchen range today the clothing of Mrs. Mary S. Coombs caught fire and before her niece, who heard her cries for help, could extinguish the flames, she had received burns which resulted in her death an hour later, Mrs. Coombs was 81 years of age.
  The Boston Journal
  Boston, Massachusetts
  February 10, 1910
  
  
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  General Electric Works, Cor. Centre Street and Western Ave.
  postmarked 1911
  Postcard
  
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  Olympia Theatre
  
  The Olympia was opened on January 25, 1908. It was a live theatre with films at first, and also was renowned locally for its Sunday afternoon concerts at which famous classical music artistes performed. A number of stars appeared there. Later, it featured movies only. It closed on October 7, 1952 and was then demolished to provide parking for Anthony’s Hawthorne Restaurant. cinematreasures.org
  Postcard
  
• 1916
  Lynn, a city and seaport of Essex co., Mass., is pleasantly situated on Massachusetts Bay, 10 miles NE. of Boston, on the Boston and Maine and the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Rs. It is about 2 miles from the peninsula of Nahant. Lynn has long been celebrated for the manufacture of women's and chil...Read MORE...
  
  
  
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  Union Street
  Postcard
  
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  "The Breakers" Lynn Shore Drive
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  Floating Bridge
  
  The original bridge was constructed in the early 1800's as part of the Salem Turnpike, the main highway from Boston to Salem. As with most bridges of this era it was a toll bridge. The lake here is rather wide and it really couldn't be constructed of spans with the limited technology of the era... so they constructed pontoons to float the plank deck...
  
  Around 1926, because of complaints from lack of fire protection on the north side, the bridge was rebuilt this time with... Read MORE...
  
  Postcard
  
•  1923 - FIVE PERSONS DIE IN APARTMENT FIRE. TEN REPORTED MISSING WHEN ESSEX CASTLE HOUSE IS CONSUMED.
  United Press
  
  Lynn, Mass., April 19. - Five persons are known to have been killed, and ten are reported missing, in a fire in the Essex Castle Apartment House here.
  
  The dead:
  FRANK TOZIER, 42.
  GEORGE PHILPOT, 32.
  MRS. ANTOINETTE HANLOU.
  MISS MARGARET NUTTER.
  HARRY FAIRCHILD.
  
  Police beli...Read MORE...
  
  
  
• 1942 - The first Jet Airplane Engine in the U.S. was built at Lynn’s General Electric plant in 1942.
  
  lynnma.gov