City of Lynn – Lynn City Hall

Lynn Memorial City Hall and Auditorium is a large Art Deco building that defines the civic heart of Lynn. It serves three roles at once: it houses the city’s principal offices, including the mayor’s office and the City Council chambers; it memorializes residents who died in the nation’s military conflicts; and it contains a large public performance space with seating for more than 2,000 people, making it both a government center and a venue.

The building’s listing also traces the city’s long history. Settlers from nearby Salem looking for less crowded land bargained for an area known as Saugus, which was incorporated in 1630 and renamed Lynn in 1637 after the arrival of its first official minister, Samuel Whiting, from King’s Lynn, England. Though mostly agricultural at first, Lynn became known for leather shoemaking, and a Quaker named Ebenezer Breed helped make it an important shoe center of the new world.

What to Know

• The original Saugus land included what are now Swampscott, Nahant, Saugus and Lynnfield.
• The community was founded in 1629, one year before its incorporation as the Town of Saugus.
• Ebenezer Breed persuaded Congress to place a protective tariff on shoes made in Lynn.