LYNN, lin, Mass., city in Essex County, on Massachusetts Bay, and on the Boston and Maine, the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn railroads, about 10 miles northeast of Boston and five miles southwest of Salem. Area, nearly 12 square miles. Lynn was first settled in 1629 by Edmund and Francis Ingalls and for a time was called Saugus. It receives its present name in 1637 from King's Lynn, Eng land, the home of Samuel Whiting, then pastor at Saugus (Lynn). It was incorporated in 1630 and chartered as a city in 1850. The city in cludes what were several independent villages: Glenmere, Highlands, East Lynn, West Lynn, Lynmere and Wyoma. The Lynn Harbor is shallow, but it is considered safe. The three-mile shore-line adds to its attrac tions. The city is noted for its shoe factories. The annual amount of shoe business is in the neighborhood of $50,000,000; and the number of persons employed, about 25,000. The chief manufactures are shoes, cut leather, shoe ma chinery, electrical supplies, meters, arc lamps, morocco and patent medicines. The city has several churches of the various denominations.
Some of the principal buildings are Lynn Public Library, which has about 65,000 volumes; two hospitals, the city hall, Lynn Home for Aged Women and an orphanage. There are two high schools, over 100 grammar schools and an equal number of primary schools, together with several large parish schools, containing primary, grammar and high school departments.
The annual expenditure for municipal main tenance and operation is about $1,348,000; the chief items are, schools about $385,000; for poor, sick, homeless and other charities, $63, 000; for police department, $112,000; for fire department, $112,000; for waterworks, $185,000; for sanitation, $104,000. The waterworks plant opened in 1870, and costing about $2,500,000, is owned and operated by the city.
The government of Lynn is conducted on the commission plan. Pop, about 98,207. Con sult Newhall, F. H. 'History of Lynn, Mass.) (Lynn 1883), and Sanderson, H. K., 'Lynn in the Revolution) (2 vols., Boston 1909).