The Lynn Museum

The Lynn Museum, now the Lynn Museum & Arts Center, is a history museum and cultural center in Lynn’s Arts and Cultural District. Founded in 1897 to collect, preserve and illuminate the city’s history, it presents changing exhibitions and youth and adult programs for Lynn’s diverse community. The history it preserves includes Lynn’s rise from 18th-century family shoemaking shops known as ten-footers to the largest shoe manufacturing city in the world by the early 1900s.

In 2014 the museum merged with LynnArts and took over its building on Exchange Street, part of the Historic Bank Block, which still has bank vaults on two floors. Now called The Studios, it houses private studios for contemporary artists, two public galleries with a shop of North Shore arts and crafts, and the Neal Rantoul Vault Theater. The building was once home to rock radio station WFNX and is known for the “Lynn Stories” mural.

What to Know

• Children, students and members get in free, and admission is free on certain days.
• The museum takes part in Card to Culture, offering reduced admission with EBT or WIC cards.
• Student group tours can be arranged through the museum office.
• A museum parking lot and street parking are available.
• The Vault Theater is used by the Lynn Music Foundation for concerts, workshops and master classes.