LYNN, city of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on north shore of Massachusetts bay, pm. N.E. of Boston. It is served by the Boston and Maine and the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn railways. The population (about 25% foreign-born) was 102,320 in 1930. The city's area of 10.85 sq.m. includes 2,5ooac. in parks and 3.5m. of fine beaches. High Rock, in the centre of the city, i9oft. above sea-level, is surmounted by an observation tower 85ft. high, commanding magnificent views. The commerce of the harbour (338,740 tons in 1925) consists chiefly of incoming coal. From its earliest days Lynn has been a manufacturing centre. The manufacture of boots and shoes, its most important, and for many generations its most distinctive industry, was introduced in 1636. In 1927 the output of 99 shoe factories and allied plants making lasts, leather and findings, was valued at $51,398,889. There are two large plants of the General Electric company, estab lished in 1883, which employ 12,000 persons; and some 400 smaller establishments, making 95 different kinds of commodities. The total factory output in 1927 was valued at the as sessed valuation of property was $132,781,015; and banking transactions in 1926 totalled $387,500,000. The mayoralty form
of government was restored in 1918, displacing a commission form which had been in operation since 1910. Lynn was founded in 1629, organized as a village in 1631, and incorporated as a city in 1850. It was called Saugus at first, but was renamed in 1637 from Lynn Regis, Norfolk, the home of the pastor. The first smelting works in New England were established here in The boot and shoe industry developed steadily through the 17th and 18th centuries. The women's shoes made here had become famous by 1764, and in 1795 the output was 300,00o pairs. In 1900 and in 1905 Lynn ranked second among the cities of the United States in the value of the boots and shoes manufactured, but in 1923 it had dropped to sixth place, due to the dispersal of the industry and the rise of new centres in the middle west. Mean while various new industries were taking root, and Lynn has be come a city of diversified products.