text:
Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the east. Lawrence and Salem were the county seats of Essex County, until the state abolished county government in 1999. Lawrence is part of the Merrimack Valley.

Manufacturing products of the city include electronic equipment, textiles, footwear, paper products, computers, and foodstuffs. Lawrence was the residence of the poet Robert Frost for his early school years; his essays and poems were first published in the Lawrence High School newspaper. Lawrence is also the birthplace of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in 1918, and singer Robert Goulet in 1933.

Indigenous history
Native Americans lived along the Merrimack River for thousands of years before European colonization of the Americas. Evidence of farming at Den Rock Park and arrowhead manufacturing on the site where the Wood Mill now sits have been discovered.

At the time of contact in the early 1600s, the Pennacook or Pentucket had a presence north of the Merrimack, while Massachusett, Naumkeag, and Agawam controlled territory south of the river. The territory which would later be aggregated into the city of Lawrence was purchased from Pennacooks Sagahew and Passaquo in 1642 for the English settlement of Haverhill, and from Massachusett sachem Cutshamekin in 1646 as a post-hoc payment for the lands surrounding the English settlement of Andover (modern-day North Andover center).

Founding and rise as a textile center

Europeans first settled the Haverhill area in 1640, colonists from Newbury following the Merrimack River in from the coast. The area that would become Lawrence was then part of Methuen and Andover. The first settlement within present-day city limits came in 1655 with the establishment of a blockhouse in Shawsheen Fields, now South Lawrence.

The future site of the city (formerly parts of Andover and Methuen), was purchased by a consortium of local industrialists. The Water Power Association members: Abbott Lawrence, Edmund Bartlett, Thomas Hopkinson of Lowell, John Nesmith and Daniel Saunders, had purchased control of Peter's Falls on the Merrimack River and hence controlled Bodwell's Falls the site of the present Great Stone Dam. The group allotted fifty thousand dollars to buy land along the river to develop. In 1844, the group petitioned the legislature to act as a corporation, known as the Essex Company, which incorporated on April 16, 1845. The first excavations for the Great Stone Dam to harness the Merrimack River's water power were done on August 1, 1845. The Essex Company would sell the water power to corporations such as the Arlington Mills, as well as organize the construction of mills and build to suit. Until 1847, when the state legislature recognized the community as a town, it was called interchangeably the "New City", "Essex" or "Merrimac". The post office, built in 1846, used the designation "Merrimac". Incorporation as a city would come in 1853, and the name "Lawrence", was merely chosen as a token of respect to Abbott Lawrence, who it cannot be verified ever saw the city named after him.

Canals were dug on both the north and the south banks to provide power to the factories that would soon be built on its banks as both mill owners and workers from across the city and the world flocked to the city in droves; many were Irish laborers who had experience with similar building work. The work was dangerous: injuries and even death were common.

Bread and Roses Strike of 1912
Working conditions in the mills were unsafe and in 1860 the Pemberton Mill collapsed, killing 145 workers. As immigrants flooded into the United States in the mid to late 19th century, the population of Lawrence abounded with skilled and unskilled workers from several countries. Protesting conditions, in 1912 they walked out of the mills. The action, sometimes celebrated as the Bread and Roses Strike, was one of the more important, widely reported, labor struggles in American history.

The Industrial Workers of the World (the "One Big Union", the "Wobblies") defied the common wisdom that a largely female and ethnically divided workforce could not be organized, and the strike held through two bitterly cold winter months. The young 15-year mill hand Fred Beal, who was drawn by the experience into a lifetime of labor organizing, recalls that contrary to expectations, it was the most recent immigrant groups, "the Italians, Poles, Syrians [Lebanese] and Franco-Belgians", who "kept it alive.

After hundreds of the strikers' hungry children had been sent to sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, and the U.S. Congress was induced to hold hearings, the mill owners decided to settle, giving workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent. However, as a young Massachusetts Senator, John F. Kennedy was later to record, in the decades that followed the mill owners moved their capital and employment out of Lawrence and the region to the non-union South.

Post-War history
Lawrence was a great wool-processing center until that industry declined in the 1950s. The decline left Lawrence a struggling city. The population of Lawrence declined from over 80,000 residents in 1950 (and a high of 94,270 in 1920) to approximately 64,000 residents in 1980, the low point of Lawrence's population. Much of the population relocated to nearby Methuen.

Urban redevelopment and renewal

Like other northeastern cities suffering from the effects of post-World War II industrial decline, Lawrence has often made efforts at revitalization, some of them controversial. The Lawrence Redevelopment Authority and city officials utilized eminent domain for a perceived public benefit, via a top-down approach, to revitalize the city throughout the 1960s. Known first as urban redevelopment, and then urban renewal, Lawrence's local government's actions towards vulnerable immigrant and poor communities, contained an undercurrent of gentrification which lies beneath the goals to revitalize Lawrence. There was a clash of differing ideals and perceptions of blight, growth, and what constituted a desirable community. Ultimately the discussion left out those members of the community who would be directly impacted by urban redevelopment.

Under the guise of urban renewal, large tracts of downtown Lawrence were razed in the 1970s, and replaced with parking lots and a three-story parking garage connected to a new Intown Mall intended to compete with newly constructed suburban malls. The historic Theater Row along Broadway was also razed, destroying ornate movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s that entertained mill workers through the Great Depression and the Second World War. The city's main post office, an ornate Federalist-style building at the corner of Broadway and Essex Street, was razed. Most of the structures were replaced with one-story, steel-frame structures with large parking lots, housing such establishments as fast food restaurants and chain drug stores, fundamentally changing the character of the center of Lawrence.

Lawrence also attempted to increase its employment base by attracting industries unwanted in other communities, such as waste treatment facilities and incinerators. From 1980 until 1998, private corporations operated two trash incinerators in Lawrence. Activist residents successfully blocked the approval of a waste treatment center on the banks of the Merrimack River near the current site of Salvatore's Pizza on Merrimack Street.

Recently the focus of Lawrence's urban renewal has shifted to preservation rather than sprawl.

Events of the 1980s and 1990s
Immigrants from the Dominican Republic and migrants from Puerto Rico began arriving in Lawrence in significant numbers in the late 1960s, attracted by cheap housing and a history of tolerance toward immigrants. In 1984, tensions between remaining working-class whites and increasing numbers of Hispanic youth flared into a riot, centered at the intersection of Haverhill Street and Oxford Street, where several buildings were destroyed by Molotov cocktails and over 300 people were arrested.

Lawrence saw further setbacks during the recession of the early 1990s as a wave of arson plagued the city. Over 200 buildings were set alight in eighteen months in 1991–1992, many of them abandoned residences and industrial sites. The Malden Mills factory burned down on December 11, 1995. CEO Aaron Feuerstein decided to continue paying the salaries of all the now unemployed workers while the factory was being rebuilt.

Recent trends
A sharp reduction in violent crime starting in 2004 and massive private investment in former mill buildings along the Merrimack River, including the remaining section of the historic Wood Worsted Mill—to be converted into commercial, residential and education uses – have lent encouragement to boosters of the city. One of the final remaining mills in the city is Malden Mills. Lawrence's downtown has seen a resurgence of business activity as Hispanic-owned businesses have opened along Essex Street, the historic shopping street of Lawrence that remained largely shuttered since the 1970s. In June 2007, the city approved the sale of the Intown Mall, largely abandoned since the early 1990s recession, to Northern Essex Community College for the development of a medical sciences center, the construction of which commenced in 2012 when the InTown Mall was finally removed. A large multi-structure fire in January 2008 destroyed many wooden structures just south of downtown. A poor financial situation that has worsened with the recent global recession and has led to multiple municipal layoffs had Lawrence contemplating receivership. On February 9, 2019, in recognition of the role the town has played in the labor movement, Senator Elizabeth Warren officially announced her candidacy for President of the United States in Lawrence.

Gas explosion
On September 13, 2018, a series of gas explosions and fires broke out in as many as 40 homes in Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover. The disaster killed one resident and caused over 30,000 customers to evacuate their homes. A year after this first incident on September 27, 2019, there was another gas leak causing people to evacuate their homes again.

Timeline

 * 1845
 * Essex Company begins construction of the dam and canal on Merrimack River.
 * 1846
 * Essex Company Machine Shop built.
 * Lawrence Street Church organized.
 * Church of the Immaculate Conception established.
 * 1847
 * Town of Lawrence incorporated from Methuen and Andover; named after businessman Abbott Lawrence.
 * Lawrence Courier newspaper in publication.
 * Bellevue Cemetery established.
 * Franklin Library Association formed.
 * First Baptist Church, First Free Baptist Church, First Unitarian Society, Church of the Good Shepherd, and First Methodist Episcopal Church established
 * 1848
 * Boston & Maine Railroad depot established in South Lawrence.
 * Lawrence Dam constructed across Merrimack River.
 * Bay State woollen mills begin operating.
 * St. Mary's Church organized.
 * 1849
 * Manchester and Lawrence Railroad begins operating.
 * Lawrence Sentinel newspaper begins publication.
 * Central Church organized.
 * Atlantic Cotton Mills starts in business.
 * Lawrence Gas Company formed.
 * Lawrence Brass Band formed.
 * 1850 – Population: 8,282.
 * 1851 – Grace Episcopal Church built.
 * 1853
 * The City of Lawrence incorporated as a municipal government.
 * Charles S. Storrow becomes the first city mayor.
 * Lawrence Duck Company in business.
 * Garden Street Methodist Episcopal Church organized as a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
 * 1854
 * Additional part of Methuen annexed to the City of Lawrence.
 * Pacific Mills starts operating in business.
 * Lawrence Paper Company incorporated.
 * 1855 – Pemberton Company in business.
 * 1860
 * January – Pemberton Mill building collapse.
 * Population according to decennial United States Census: 17,639.
 * 1861 – Massachusetts state militia called up by Governor in response to a proclamation by 16th President Abraham Lincoln of a state of rebellion in the South following firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in South Carolina Confederate forces on April 12. Sixth Regiment earliest to respond with men from Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Stoneham, Boston. Heads south by train and is attacked by mobs of Southern sympathizers in Baltimore along Pratt Street while being pulled through on horse cars and later marching between the President Street Station of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad on the east of the harbor to the Camden Street Station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on way to the national capital at Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 19. Four soldiers were killed and numerous wounded among Baltimorean civilians as city police and officials attempted to escort troops. Considered the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War".
 * Second Baptist Church established.
 * 1864 – Moseley Truss Bridge built.
 * 1865
 * Eliot Congregational Church organized.
 * Arlington Mills in business.
 * Wright Manufacturing Co. formed.
 * 1867 – Lawrence Flyer and Spindle Works in business.
 * 1868
 * Lawrence Daily Eagle newspaper begins publication.
 * South Congregational Church and First Presbyterian Church established.
 * 1871
 * Archibald Wheel Co. incorporated.
 * Parker Street Methodist Episcopal Church and St. Anne's Church organized.
 * 1872 – Free Public Library established
 * 1873 – St. Laurence's Church dedicated.
 * 1876 – YMCA formed.
 * 1877
 * Lawrence Bleachery established.
 * Tower Hill Congregational Church organized.
 * 1878 – German Methodist Episcopal Church organized.
 * 1879
 * Parts of Andover and North Andover annexed to Lawrence.
 * German Presbyterian Church organized.
 * Lawrence Bicycle Club formed.
 * 1880
 * Globe Worsted Co. incorporated.
 * Bodwell Street M.E. Church organized.
 * 1881
 * Lawrence Line Company incorporated.
 * Munroe Felt and Paper Company incorporated.
 * Merrimac Paper Company incorporated.
 * 1882
 * L'Institute Canadien Francais founded.
 * Stanley Manufacturing Co. incorporated.
 * 1884 – Emmons Loom Harness Company organized.
 * 1887 – Lawrence Experiment Station established by the Massachusetts State Board of Health.
 * 1888
 * Duck Bridge built.
 * Board of Trade organized.
 * 1896 – High Service Water Tower built
 * 1890
 * Public Library building constructed.
 * Evening Tribune newspaper begins publication.
 * July – Cyclone.
 * 1899 – 20,899 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence.
 * 1905 – American Woolen Company builds Wood Mill.
 * 1910 – Everett Mill constructed.
 * 1911 – Lawrence bathhouse tragedy
 * 1912 – Famous nationally known 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike occurs with strife and casualties. Later known as the "Bread and Roses Strike".
 * 1918 - Central Bridge constructed.
 * 1919 - 30,319 people employed in manufacturing in Lawrence.
 * 1920 – Population: 94,270.
 * 1927 – Stadium opens.
 * 1931 – Boston & Maine Railroad depot active off Parker Street.
 * 1934
 * Lawrence Municipal Airport established.
 * Walter A. Griffin becomes mayor.
 * 1935 – Central Catholic High School opens.
 * 1943 – Climatic Research Laboratory for United States Army in operation.
 * 1966 – Daniel P. Kiley, Jr. becomes mayor.
 * 1972 – John J. Buckley becomes mayor.
 * 1975 – Paul Tsongas becomes Massachusetts's 5th congressional district representative.
 * 1978
 * Immigrant City Archives at Lawrence History Center was established for local history and culture with exhibitions.
 * Lawrence P. LeFebre becomes mayor.
 * 1985 – Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity organized.
 * 1986 – Kevin J. Sullivan becomes mayor.
 * 1991 – Northern Essex Community College active in Lawrence.
 * 1995 – Malden Mills fire.
 * 2001 – Michael J. Sullivan becomes mayor.
 * 2004 – Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School opens.
 * First observance of Civil War Weekend at central Compeigne Common in October remembering local casualties then nationally famous and considered first "martyrs for the Union" of the noted Sixth Massachusetts volunteer state militia regiment in infamous Baltimore riot of 1861 (also known as the "Pratt Street Riots") as the "First Bloodshed of the Civil War" on April 19, 1861. Various military reenactment units and heritage groups including from the Baltimore Civil War Museum at the historic President Street Station participate in memorial ceremonies at the Soldiers Monument in Common and gravesites at historic Bellevue Cemetery, sponsored by the Lawrence Civil War Memorial Guard.
 * 2005 – Lawrence (MBTA station) reopens for the Boston commuter train, subway and transit system.
 * 2007 – Niki Tsongas becomes Massachusetts's 5th congressional district representative.
 * 2010
 * Population: 76,377.
 * William Lantigua becomes mayor of Lawrence, first of Hispanic ancestry.
 * 2012
 * School Superintendent convicted of fraud and embezzlement.
 * Centennial observed of infamous 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike, later known as "Bread and Roses" labor strife.

History of Lawrence immigrant communities
Lawrence has been aptly nicknamed the "Immigrant City". It has been home to numerous different immigrant communities, most of whom arrived during the great wave of European immigration to America that ended in the 1920s.

Immigrant communities, 1845–1920
Lawrence became home to large groups of immigrants from Europe, beginning with the Irish in 1845, Germans after the social upheaval in Germany in 1848, Swedes fleeing an overcrowded Sweden, and French Canadians seeking to escape hard northern farm life from the 1850s onward. A second wave began arriving after 1900, as part of the great mass of Italian and Eastern European immigrants, including Jews from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and neighboring regions. Immigration to the United States was severely curtailed in the 1920s with the Immigration Act of 1924 when foreign-born immigration to Lawrence virtually ceased for over 40 years.

In 1890, the foreign-born population of 28,577 was divided as follows, with the significant remainder of the population being children of foreign-born residents: 7,058 Irish; 6,999 French Canadians; 5,131 English; 2,465 German; 1,683 English Canadian. In 1920, toward the end of the first wave of immigration, most ethnic groups had numerous social clubs in the city. The Portuguese had 2; the English had 2; the Jews had 3; the Armenians, 5; the Lebanese and Syrians, 6; the Irish, 8; the Polish, 9; the French Canadians and Belgian-French, 14; the Lithuanians, 18; the Italians, 32; and the Germans, 47. However, the center of social life, even more than clubs or fraternal organizations, was churches. Lawrence is dotted with churches, many now closed, torn down, or converted into other uses. These churches signify, more than any other artifacts, the immigrant communities that once lived within walking distance of each church.

Germans
The first sizable German community arrived following the revolutions of 1848. However, a larger German community was formed after 1871, when industrial workers from Saxony were displaced by economic competition from new industrial areas like the Ruhr. The German community was characterized by numerous school clubs, shooting clubs, national and regional clubs, as well as men's choirs and mutual aid societies, many of which were clustered around the Turn Verein, a major social club on Park Street. Germans had a considerable number of churches in Lawrence, including Church of the Assumption of Mary (German Catholic) parish formed in 1887 on Lawrence Street, as well as several Protestant churches including The German Methodist Episcopal Church, Vine Street, organized in 1878; and the German Presbyterian, East Haverhill Street, organized 1872 from which the Methodist church split in 1878.

Italians
Some Italian immigrants celebrated Mass in the basement chapel of the largely Irish St. Laurence O'Toole Church, at the intersection of East Haverhill Street and Newbury Street, until they had collected sufficient funds to erect the Holy Rosary Church in 1909 nearby at the intersection of Union Street and Essex Street. Immigrants from Lentini (a comune in the Sicilian the province of Syracuse) and from the Sicilian province of Catania maintained a particular devotion to three Catholic martyrs, Saint Alfio, Saint Filadelfo and Saint Cirino, and in 1923 began celebrating a procession on their feast day. Although most of the participants live in neighboring towns, the Feast of Three Saints festival continues in Lawrence today. Many of the Italians who lived in the Newbury Street area had immigrated from Trecastagni, Viagrande, Acireale, and Nicolosi, Italy.

French Canadians
French Canadians were the second major immigrant group to settle in Lawrence. In 1872, they erected their first church, St. Anne's, at the corner of Haverhill and Franklin streets. Within decades, St. Anne's established a "missionary church", Sacred Heart on South Broadway, to serve the burgeoning Québécois community in South Lawrence. Later it would also establish the "missionary" parishes in Methuen: Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Theresa's (Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel et St-Thérèse). The French-Canadians arrived from various farming areas of Quebec where the old parishes were overpopulated: some people moved up north (Abitibi and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean), while others moved to industrial towns to find work (Montreal, Quebec; but also in the United States). Others who integrated themselves into these French-Canadian communities were actually Acadians who had left the Canadian Maritimes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia also in search of work.

Lebanese ("Syrians")
Lawrence residents frequently referred to their Arabic-speaking Middle Eastern community as "Syrian". Most so-called Syrians in Lawrence were from present-day Lebanon and were largely Maronite Christian. Lebanese and Syrians mostly settled in the neighborhoods of North Lawrence such as Tower Hill along with Prospect Hill. Lebanese immigrants organized St. Anthony's Maronite Church in 1903 on the corner of Lebanon Street and Lawrence Street, and St. Joseph's Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, as well as St. George's Antiochian Orthodox Church.

Jews
Jewish merchants became increasingly numerous in Lawrence and specialized in dry goods and retail shops. The fanciest men's clothing store in Lawrence, Kap's, established in 1902 and closed in the early 1990s, was founded by Elias Kapelson, born in Lithuania. Jacob Sandler arrived in Lawrence in June 1891 (1906, his two brothers (Isaac and Sundel arrived), and 3 other brothers also arrived in the early 1900s. Jacob opened a shoe business at 434 Broadway and earned enough income to purchase the property at 256–258 Essex St starting Sandler's Department Store, it later became Sandler's Luggage which continued under his son, Simon Sandler, and later his grandson, Robert Sandler until 1978. In the 1880s, the first Jewish arrivals established a community around Common, Valley, Concord, and Lowell streets. As of 1922, there were at least two noteworthy congregations, both on Concord Street: Congregation of Sons of Israel (Jewish), organized October 3, 1894. Synagogue on Concord Street built in 1913; and Congregation of Anshea Sfard (Jewish), organized on April 6, 1900. The synagogue on Concord Street was built in the autumn of 1907.  In the 1920s, the Jews of Lawrence began congregating further up Tower Hill, where they erected two synagogues on Lowell Street above Milton Street, as well as a Jewish Community Center on nearby Haverhill Street. All three institutions had closed their doors by 1990 as the remaining elderly members of the community died out or moved away.

Polish
The Polish community of Lawrence was estimated to be only 600–800 persons in 1900. However, by 1905, the community had expanded sufficiently to fund the construction of the Holy Trinity Church at the corner of Avon and Trinity streets. Their numbers grew to 2,100 Poles in 1910. Like many of their immigrant brethren from other nations, most of the Poles were employed in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing.

Lithuanians
Lawrence had a sizable enough Lithuanian community to warrant the formation of both Lithuanian Catholic and Lithuanian National Catholic churches. St. Francis (Lithuanian Catholic Church) on Bradford Street was formed in 1903 by Rev. James T. O'Reilly of St. Mary's, in a building previously occupied by St. John's Episcopal Church. The church closed in 2002, merging with Holy Trinity (Polish) and SS. Peter and Paul (Portuguese). Sacred Heart Lithuanian National Catholic Church was established in 1917 and located on Garden Street until its closure and sale in 2001.

English
A sizable English community, composed mainly of unskilled laborers who arrived after 1880, sought work in the textile mills where they were given choice jobs by the Yankee overseers on account of their shared linguistic heritage and close cultural links.

Yankee farmers

Not all immigrants to Lawrence were foreign-born or their children. Yankee farmers, unable to compete against the cheaper farmlands of the Midwest that had been linked to the East Coast by rail, settled in corners of Lawrence. Congregationalists were the second Protestant denomination to begin worship in Lawrence after the Episcopalians, with the formation of the Lawrence Street Congregational Church in 1847, and the first in South Lawrence, with the erection in 1852 of the first South Congregational Church on South Broadway, near the corner of Andover Street. Baptist churches included The First Baptist Church, one of the first churches in Lawrence, which was organized in the spring of 1947 and was known as Amesbury Street Baptist Church. Second Baptist was organized on September 6, 1860; its building was dedicated in 1874.

New immigrants, 1970 to present
Immigration of foreign-born workers to Lawrence largely ceased in 1921 with the passage of strict quotas against immigrants from the countries that had supplied the cheap, unskilled workers.

Although many quotas were lifted after the Second World War, foreign immigration to Lawrence only increased again in the early 1960s, with Hispanic immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and other Latin American countries. Immigrants from Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, have also settled in Lawrence.

Indicative of immigration trends, several Catholic churches now conduct masses in two or more languages. St. Patrick's Church, a Catholic church in Lawrence and once an Irish bastion, has celebrated Spanish masses on Sundays since 1999. A mass in Vietnamese is also offered every other week. St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners. It has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s.

Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1980s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic evangelical churches.

The 2000 Census revealed the following population breakdown, illustrating the shift toward newer immigrant groups:

Dominican Republic, 22%; other Hispanic or Latino, 12%; Irish, 7%; Italian, 7%, French (except Basque), 5%; Black or African American, 5%; French Canadian, 5%; English, 3%; Arab, 2%; German, 2%; Lebanese, 2%; Central American, 1%; Polish, 1%; Portuguese, 1%; Guatemalan, 1%;  Vietnamese, 1%; South American, 1%; Spanish, 1%; Cambodian, 1%; Scottish, 1%; Cuban, 1%; Scotch-Irish, 1%; Ecuadoran, 1%.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.4 sqmi, of which 7.0 sqmi is land and 0.4 sqmi (6.07%) is water. Lawrence is on both sides of the Merrimack River, approximately 26 mi upstream from the Atlantic Ocean. On the north side of the river, it is surrounded by Methuen. On the south side of the river, the town is bordered by North Andover to the east, and Andover to the south and southwest. Lawrence is approximately 20 mi southwest of Newburyport, 30 mi north-northwest of Boston and 27 mi southeast of Manchester, New Hampshire.

Aside from the Merrimack River, other water features include the Spicket River, which flows into the Merrimack from Methuen, and the Shawsheen River, which forms the southeastern border of the city. Lawrence has two power canals that were formerly used to provide hydropower to the mills—one on the north bank of the river, the other on the south. Channeling water into these canals is the Great Stone Dam, which lies across the entire Merrimack and was, at the time of its construction in the 1840s, the largest dam in the world. The highest point in Lawrence is the top of Tower Hill in the northwest corner of the city, rising approximately 240 ft above sea level. Other prominent hills include Prospect Hill, in the northeastern corner of the city, and Mount Vernon, along the southern edge of the city. Most industrial activity was concentrated in the flatlands along the rivers. Den Rock Park, a wooded conservation district on the southern edge of Lawrence that spans the Lawrence-Andover town line, provides recreation for nature lovers and rock climbers alike. There are also several small parks throughout town.

Climate
Lawrence has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa), which is typical for the southern Merrimack valley region in eastern Massachusetts.

2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, Lawrence had a population of 89,143. Of which, 81.7% were Hispanic/Latino, 12.3% were non-Hispanic White, 2.3% were non-Hispanic Black, 1.7% were Asian, 0.1% were Native American or Pacific Islander, 1.9% mixed or other.

2010 census
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2010 Census, the city's population is 76,377, the population density is 10,973.7 per square mile (4237/km2), and there are 27,137 households (25,181 occupied).

The racial makeup of the city in 2016 was 16.6% non-Hispanic white, 7.8% Black or African American, 2.8% Asian (1.2% Cambodian, 0.7% Vietnamese, 0.3% Pakistani, 0.2% Indian, 0.2% Chinese, 0.1% Korean), 0.4% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 39.3% some other race, 2.7% two or more races, and 77.1% of the population is Hispanic or Latino (of any race) (47.0% Dominican, 21.7% Puerto Rican, 3.0% Guatemalan, 0.7% Salvadoran, 0.7% Spanish, 0.6% Cuban, 0.5% Ecuadorian, 0.5% Mexican, 0.2% Honduran, 0.2% Colombian, 0.1% Venezuelan, 0.1% Nicaraguan, 0.1% Peruvian).

As of the census of 2000, there were 72,043 people, 24,463 households, and 16,903 families residing in the city. The population density was 10,351.4 PD/sqmi. There were 25,601 housing units at an average density of 3,678.4 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 48.64% White (U.S. Average: 72.4%), 4.88% African American (U.S. Average: 12.3%), 2.65% Asian (U.S. Average: 3.6%), 0.81% Native American (U.S. Average: 0.1%), 0.10% Pacific Islander (U.S. Average: 0.1%), 36.67% from other races (U.S. Average: 5.5%), 6.25% from two or more races (U.S. Average: 2.4%).

There were 24,463 households where the average household size was 2.90 and the average family size was 3.46.
 * 41.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them. (U.S. Average: 32.8%)
 * 36.6% were married couples living together. (U.S. Average: 51.7%)
 * 25.7% had a female householder with no husband present. (U.S. Average: 12.2%)
 * 30.9% were non-families. (U.S. Average: 31.9%)
 * 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals. (U.S. Average: 25.8%)
 * 10.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. (U.S. Average: 9.2%)

In the city, the population had a median age was 30.0 years (U.S. Average: 35.3):
 * 32.0% under the age of 18
 * 11.1% from 18 to 24
 * 30.3% from 25 to 44
 * 16.7% from 45 to 64
 * 9.8% were 65 years of age or older.

For every 100 females, there were 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $25,983 (U.S. Average: $41,994), and the median income for a family was $29,809 (U.S. Average: $50,046). Males had a median income of $27,772 versus $23,137 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,360. About 21.2% of families (U.S. Average: 9.2%) and 34.3% (U.S. Average: 12.4%) of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.7% of those under age 18 and 20.1% of those age 65 or over.

The former Mayor of Lawrence, Daniel Rivera, said the city was "approximately 75% Spanish" following an incident where non-English speaking callers were allegedly hung up on by a 911 operator.

Economy
New Balance has a shoe manufacturing plant in Lawrence, one of five plants operating in the US.

Charm Sciences, which manufactures test kits and systems for antibiotics, veterinary drugs, mycotoxins, pesticides, alkaline phosphatase, pathogens, end-product microbial assessment, allergen control, and ATP hygiene, has a laboratory in Lawrence.

Points of interest

 * Bellevue Cemetery
 * Campagnone Common
 * Essex Art Center
 * Great Stone Dam
 * High Service Water Tower and Reservoir
 * Lawrence Community Works
 * Lawrence Experiment Station
 * Lawrence Heritage State Park
 * Lawrence History Center
 * Old Public Library
 * Sacred Heart Parish Complex
 * Saint Alfio Society (Feast of the Three Saints) - An Italian feast that is held every Labor Day weekend along Common Street
 * Semana Hispana (Hispanic Week)
 * Veterans Memorial Stadium

Library

The Lawrence Public Library was established in 1872. In fiscal year 2008, the city of Lawrence spent 0.55% ($1,155,597) of its budget on its public library—approximately $16 per person, per year ($19.60 adjusted for inflation in 2021).

Government
Lawrence is one of Essex County's two county seats, along with Salem. As such, it is home to a juvenile, district and superior court, as well as a regional office of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Local
Lawrence has a "strong mayor", which is one directly elected by the voters to be the city's executive. The city council is elected partly at large and partly from districts or wards of the city. Party primaries are prohibited. Lawrence has an established City Charter and a mayor-council government. There are nine city councilors and six school committee members; most are elected by district; three city council members are elected at large. There are six districts in Lawrence and all elections are non-partisan. The Mayor serves as the seventh member and chair of the school committee. The city council chooses one of its members as president who serves as chair of the council. The city of Lawrence also elects three members to the Greater Lawrence Technical School Committee these members are elected at-large. City Council and Mayoral terms of office begin in January.

The current mayor is Brian A. De Peña. The current members of the City Council are:

 * Marc LaPlante, President (District F)
 * Estela Reyes, Vice-President (District B)
 * Richard Russell, Councilor at large
 * Celina Reyes, Councilor at large
 * Ana Levy, Councilor at large
 * Maria De La Cruz, District A
 * Gregory Delrosario, District C
 * Jeovanny A. Rodriguez, District D
 * Stephany Infante, District E

The Lawrence School Committee has six elected district members in which the Mayor serves as the appointed seventh member and chair of the school committee.

 * Brian A DePeña, Chair (Mayor)
 * Jonathan Guzmán, Vice-Chair (Committeeman of District F)
 * Threicy Soto, Committeewoman of District A
 * Santiago Reyes-Cruz, Committeeman of District B
 * Lenin Roa, Committeeman of District C
 * Joshua Alba, Committeeman of District D
 * Patricia Mariano, Committeewoman of District E

State government

 * Estela Reyes, (D-4th Essex district)
 * Francisco E. Paulino, (D-16th Essex district)
 * Frank A. Moran, (D-17th Essex district)
 * Pavel Payano, (D-1st Essex district)
 * Eileen Duff (D), Governor's Councilor

Federal government

 * Lori Trahan, (D-United States House of Representatives, Massachusetts District 3)
 * Elizabeth Warren (D), Ed Markey (D), United States Senate

Public schools
The city has a public school system managed by Lawrence Public Schools. In November 2011, the Lawrence Public Schools was placed into state receivership by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary & Secondary Education.

High schools

 * Lawrence High School
 * High School Learning Center
 * Greater Lawrence Technical School – a regional technical high school serving the four communities of Andover, Lawrence, Methuen and North Andover

Charter schools

 * Lawrence Family Development Charter School
 * Community Day Charter Public School

Elementary schools

 * Bellesini Academy
 * Esperanza Academy
 * Lawrence Catholic Academy

High schools

 * Central Catholic High School
 * Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School

Public

 * Northern Essex Community College

Private

 * Cambridge College

Media
Lawrence's main newspaper is The Eagle-Tribune, one of the major newspapers for the Merrimack Valley that was founded in Lawrence in 1890 but later moved its facilities to the town of North Andover on Route 114. Lawrence is home to Rumbo (a bilingual English/Spanish paper) and Siglo 21 (a Spanish paper). The city has three AM stations, WNNW/800, WCAP/980, and WLLH/1400 (which is also dually licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts with a synchronous transmitter in that city); along with one FM station: WEEI-FM/93.7. WMFP is the only television station operating out of the city, and the city is considered part of the Boston television market.

Transportation
Lawrence lies along Interstate 495, which passes through the eastern portion of the city. There are three exits entirely within the city, though two more provide access from just outside the city limits. The town is also served by Route 28 passing from south to north through the city, and Route 110, which passes from east to west through the northern half of the city. Route 114 also has its western terminus at Route 28 at the Merrimack River. Lawrence is the site of four road crossings and a railroad crossing over the Merrimack, including the O'Leary Bridge (Route 28), a railroad bridge, the Casey Bridge (bringing Parker Street and access to Route 114 and the Lawrence MBTA station to the north shore), the Duck Bridge (which brings Union Street across the river), and the double-decked O'Reilly Bridge, bringing I-495 across the river.

Lawrence is the western hub of the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority's bus service. It is also home to the Senator Patricia McGovern Transportation Center, home to regional bus service, and the Lawrence stop along the Haverhill/Reading Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, providing service from Haverhill to Boston's North Station. Amtrak's Downeaster service to Maine is available eight miles to the northeast in Haverhill. Lawrence Municipal Airport provides small plane service, though it is actually in neighboring North Andover. Lawrence is approximately equidistant from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and Logan International Airport. Plans to revitalize the Manchester and Lawrence branch to the north, leading to Manchester, New Hampshire, will allow the MBTA to operate rail service up to Manchester from Lawrence, in conjunction with Pan Am Freights.

Healthcare
Lawrence General Hospital, founded in 1875, is the city's main hospital, providing service to much of the area south of the city. Other nearby hospitals are in Methuen, Haverhill, and Lowell. The city also is served by the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center. Guardian Ambulance was established in 1990 and incorporated in 1991 by local EMTs to serve the city during a downturn in the economy at that time. The station moved from the Tower Hill section to its current location on Marston Street in 1993.

Public safety
Lawrence has its own police and fire departments, and Lawrence General Hospital provides ambulance services to the city. The city is also covered by the Andover barracks of Troop A of the Massachusetts State Police, which serves much of the western Merrimack Valley and several towns just south of Andover.

Lawrence Correctional Alternative Center is a regional alternative jail for low-risk offenders.

Utilities
The city also has its own public works and trash pickup departments.

title: Lawrence, Massachusetts


text:
Lynn, Massachusetts

Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, 3.7 mi north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core.

Settled by Europeans in 1629, Lynn is the 5th oldest colonial settlement in the Commonwealth. An early industrial center, Lynn was long colloquially referred to as the "City of Sin", owing to its historical reputation for crime and vice. Today, however, the city is known for its contemporary public art,  immigrant population, historic architecture, downtown cultural district, loft-style apartments, and public parks and open spaces, which include the oceanfront Lynn Shore Reservation; the 2,200-acre, Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Lynn Woods Reservation; and the High Rock Reservation and Park designed by Olmsted's sons. Lynn also is home to Lynn Heritage State Park, the southernmost portion of the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway, and the seaside, National Register-listed Diamond Historic District. The population was 101,253 at the 2020 United States census.

Pre-contact
The area that is now known as Lynn was inhabited for thousands of years by Native Americans prior to English colonization in the 1600s. At the time of European contact, the area today known as Lynn was primarily inhabited by the Naumkeag people under the powerful sachem Nanepashemet who controlled territory from the Mystic to the Merrimack Rivers. Colonists would not establish a legal agreement with the Naumkeag over the use of their land in Lynn until 1686 after a smallpox epidemic in 1633, King Philip's War, and missionary efforts significantly reduced their numbers and confined them to the Praying Town of Natick.

17th century
English colonists settled Lynn not long after the 1607 establishment of Jamestown, Virginia and the 1620 arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth. European settlement of the area was begun in 1629 by Edmund Ingalls, followed by John Tarbox of Lancashire in 1631. The area today encompassing Lynn was originally incorporated in 1629 as Saugus, the Massachusett name for the area. Three years after the settlement in Salem, five families moved onto Naumkeag lands in the interior of Lynn, then known as Saugus, and the Tomlin family constructed a large mill between today's Sluice and Flax Ponds. The mill not only supplied grains and sustenance for the settlers and trade with the Naumkeag people, but was used to create brews and many fermented casks of hops and wines to send back to King George in England.

Lynn takes its name from King's Lynn, Norfolk, England, in honor of Reverend Samuel Whiting (Senior), Lynn's first official minister who arrived from King's Lynn in 1637.

A noteworthy early Lynn colonist, Thomas Halsey, left Lynn to settle the East End of Long Island, where he and several others founded the Town of Southampton, New York. The resulting Halsey House—the oldest extant frame house in New York State (1648)—is now open to the public, under the aegis of the Southampton Colonial Society.

As English settlement pushed deeper into Naumkeag territories, disease, missionary efforts, and loss of access to seasonal hunting, farming, and fishing grounds caused significant disruption to Naumkeag lifeways. In 1675, Naumkeag sachem Wenepoykin joined Metacomet in resisting English colonization in King Philip's War, for which he was enslaved and sent to Barbados. In 1686, under pressure to demonstrate legal title for lands they occupied during the administrative restructuring of the Dominion of New England, the selectmen of Lynn and Reading purchased a deed from Wenopoykin's heirs Kunkshamooshaw and Quonopohit for 16 pounds of sterling silver, though by this time they and most surviving Naumkeag were residents of the Natick Praying Town.

Further European settlement of Lynn led to several independent towns being formed, with Reading created in 1644; Lynnfield in 1782; Saugus in 1815; Swampscott in 1852; and Nahant in 1853. The City of Lynn was incorporated on May 14, 1850.

Colonial Lynn was an early center of tannery and shoe-making, which began in 1635. The boots worn by Continental Army soldiers during the Revolutionary War were made in Lynn, and the shoe-making industry drove the city's growth into the early nineteenth century. This legacy is reflected in the city's seal, which features a colonial boot.

19th century
In 1816, a mail stage coach was operating through Lynn. By 1836, 23 stage coaches left the Lynn Hotel for Boston each day. The Eastern Railroad Line between Salem and East Boston opened on August 28, 1838. This was later merged with the Boston and Maine Railroad and called the Eastern Division. In 1847 telegraph wires passed through Lynn, but no telegraph service station was built until 1858.

During the middle of the nineteenth century, estates and beach cottages were constructed along Lynn's shoreline, and the city's Atlantic coastline became a fashionable summer resort. Many of the structures built during this period are today situated within the National Register-listed Diamond Historic District.

Further inland, industrial activity contemporaneously expanded in Lynn. Shoe manufacturers, led by Charles A. Coffin and Silas Abbott Barton, invested in the early electric industry, specifically in 1883 with Elihu Thomson, Edwin J. Houston, and their Thomson-Houston Electric Company. That company merged with Edison Electric Company of Schenectady, New York, forming General Electric in 1892, with the two original GE plants being in Lynn and Schenectady. Coffin served as the first president of General Electric.

Initially the General Electric plant specialized in arc lights, electric motors, and meters. Later it specialized in aircraft electrical systems and components, and aircraft engines were built in Lynn during WWII. That engine plant evolved into the current jet engine plant during WWII because of research contacts at MIT in Cambridge. Gerhard Neumann was a key player in jet engine group at GE in Lynn. The continuous interaction of material science research at MIT and the resulting improvements in jet engine efficiency and power have kept the jet engine plant in Lynn ever since.

One of the largest strikes of the early labor movement began in the shoe factories of Lynn on February 22, 1860, when Lynn shoemakers marched through the streets to their workplaces and handed in their tools, protesting reduced wages. Known as the 1860 New England Shoemakers Strike, it was one of the earliest strikes of its kind in the United States.

In 1841, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, moved to Lynn as a fugitive slave. Douglass wrote his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, while living in Lynn. The publication would become Douglass's best-known work. Douglass, his wife, and their five children lived in Lynn until 1848.

In 1870, Esther Hill Hawks, a renowned a female physician, and activist during the American Civil War, moved to Lynn becoming one of the three first female physicians in Lynn, providing her gynecology services to many women. Later on in 1874, opening her own practice.

On February 1, 1866, Mary Baker Eddy experienced the "fall in Lynn", often referred to by Christian Scientists as significant to the birth of their religion.

In 1889 a massive fire swept through the downtown of Lynn, and would not be matched in size until nearly 100 years later. At the time the loss was the third largest from fire in New England history. A total of 296 building were destroyed, including 142 homes, 25 stores, the Central Square railroad depot, four banks and four newspaper buildings. It was estimated that 200 families were made homeless and 10,000 jobs were lost. Estimates put the total loss as high as US$6000000 1889.

20th century
Lynn experienced a wave of immigration during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During the 30 years between 1885 and 1915, Lynn's immigrant population increased from 9,800 to 29,500, representing nearly one-third of the city's total population. Polish and Russian Jews were the largest single group, numbering more than 6,000. The first Jewish settlers in Lynn, a group of twenty Hasidic European families, mostly from Russia, formed the Congregation Anshai Sfard, a Hasidic, conservative Jewish synagogue in 1888.

Catholic churches catering to the needs of specific language and ethnic groups also testify to the waves of immigrants. St. Jean Baptiste parish, eventually including a grammar school and high school, was founded in 1886, primarily for French-Canadians. Holy Family Church conducted services in Italian beginning in 1922, and St. Michael's church also provided church services and a grammar school for the Polish-speaking community, beginning in 1906. St. Patrick's church and school was a focus of the Irish-American community in Lynn. St. George's Greek Orthodox Church was founded in Lynn in 1905. Later in the 20th century, the city became an important center of greater Boston's Latino community. Additionally, several thousand Cambodians settled in Lynn between 1975 and 1979 and in the early 1980s.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Lynn was the world-leader in the production of shoes. 234 factories produced more than a million pairs of shoes each day, thanks in part to mechanization of the process by an African-American immigrant named Jan Ernst Matzeliger. From 1924 until 1974, the Lynn Independent Industrial Shoemaking School operated in the city. However, production declined throughout the 20th century, and the last shoe factory closed in 1981.

In the early 1900s, the Metropolitan District Commission acquired several coastal properties in Lynn and Nahant, in order to create Lynn Shore and Nahant Beach Reservations, and to construct adjoining Lynn Shore Drive. When it opened to the public in 1910, Lynn Shore Drive catalyzed new development along Lynn's coastline, yielding many of the early 20th century structures that constitute a majority of the contributing resources found in the National Register-listed Diamond Historic District.

In 1970, the state authorized rent control in municipalities with more than 50,000 residents. Lynn, Somerville, Brookline, and Cambridge subsequently adopted rent control. In 1974, the voters of Lynn overwhelming repealed rent control.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lynn suffered several large fires. On November 28, 1981, a devastating inferno engulfed several former shoe factories, located at Broad and Washington Streets. Seventeen downtown buildings were destroyed in less than twelve hours, with property losses estimated to be totaling at least US$35000000 1981. At least 18 businesses were affected, resulting in the estimated loss of 1,500 jobs. The Lynn campus of the North Shore Community College, planning for which was already underway at the time of the fire, now occupies much of the burned area.

Some data suggest a reputation for crime and vice in Lynn.

In order to counter its reputation as "the city of sin", Lynn launched a "City Of Firsts" advertising campaign in the early 1990s, which promoted Lynn as having:
 * First iron works (1643)
 * First fire engine (1654)
 * First electric streetcar to operate in Massachusetts (November 19, 1888 )
 * First American jet engine
 * First woman in advertising & mass-marketing – Lydia Pinkham
 * First baseball game under artificial light
 * First dance academy in the U.S.
 * First tannery in the U.S.
 * First air mail transport in New England, from Saugus, MA to Lynn, MA
 * First roast beef sandwich
 * First tulip in the United States, at the Fay Estate near Spring Pond

In a further effort to rebrand the municipality, city solicitor Michael Barry proposed renaming the city Ocean Park in 1997, but the initiative was unsuccessful.

Despite losing much of its industrial base during the 20th century, Lynn remained home to many companies, such as:

 * A division of General Electric Aviation, focused on manufacturing jet engines
 * West Lynn Creamery (now part of Dean Foods's Garelick Farms unit)
 * C. L. Hauthaway & Sons, a polymer producer
 * Old Neighborhood Foods, a meat packer
 * Lynn Manufacturing, a maker of combustion chambers for the oil and gas heating industry
 * Sterling Machine Co.
 * Durkee-Mower, makers of "Marshmallow Fluff"

21st century
In the early 2000s, the renovation and adaptive re-use of downtown historic structures, together with new construction, launched a revitalization of Lynn, which remains ongoing. Arts, culture, and entertainment have been at the forefront of this revitalization, with new arts organizations, cultural venues, public art projects, and restaurants emerging in the downtown area. In 2012, the Massachusetts Cultural Council named downtown Lynn one of the first state-recognized arts and culture districts in Massachusetts.

In 2015, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker established a task force, composed of representatives of multiple state and municipal public agencies, to further Lynn's revitalization.

Formerly vacant industrial buildings continue to be converted into loft spaces, and historic homes, particularly Lynn's Diamond Historic District, are being restored. In 2016, several large land parcels in Lynn were acquired by major developers. In November 2018, construction began on downtown Lynn's first luxury midrise—a 259-unit, 10-story building on Monroe Street. in December 2019, ground was broken on a 331-unit waterfront development on Carroll Parkway. Many of the recent and pending large real estate projects in Lynn are Transit-oriented developments, sited within a half-mile of Lynn station, which provides 20-minute train service to North Station.

Lynn's revitalization has been bolstered by the city's emergence as a center of creative placemaking.

In 2017, swaths of the city's downtown were transformed by a series of large-scale murals, painted on buildings by local, national, and international artists, as part of the city's inaugural Beyond Walls festival. Light-based interventions, including projections onto High Rock Tower, the installation of vintage neon signs on downtown buildings, and large-scale LED-illuminations of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority rail underpasses bisecting Lynn's Downtown, also have been deployed. In 2017, Mount Vernon Street, in the core of the downtown Central Square area, began to host block parties, food trucks, and other special events.

In recent years, Lynn has attracted a substantial and growing LGBT population.

In April 2018, The Boston Globe named Lynn one of the "Top spots to live in Greater Boston in 2018."

On August 18, 2021, the new Frederick Douglass Park on Exchange Street was dedicated, directly across the street from the site of the Central Square railroad depot where Douglass was forcibly removed from the train in 1841. The park features a bronze bas-relief sculpture of Douglass. The park had been in the works since at least 2019 when a bill was filed in the Massachusetts Senate to designate the park area and its management by the Massachusetts DCR.

On September 16, 2021, Mayor McGee introduced Vision Lynn, a 20-year comprehensive planning project to expand Lynn's diversity and improve infrastructure further. In the following year and a half, Lynn's Planning Department held many opportunities for Lynners to discuss what they see for the future of the city. On April 10, 2023, a draft of the plan was shared on the planning departments website to allow for greater public comment. After May 15, 2023, the public comment window will be closed and the committee will release a final draft to be endorsed and adopted by the city.

Lynn earned the moniker "Condom Capital of the USA" after Global Protection, a subsidiary of Karex, the world's largest condom manufacturer, relocated to the former Garelick Farms facility.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.5 sqmi, of which 10.8 sqmi is land and 2.7 sqmi (19.87%) is water. Lynn is located beside Massachusetts Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Lynn's shoreline is divided in half by the town of Nahant, which divides Lynn Harbor to the south from Nahant Bay to the north. The city lies north of the Saugus River, and is also home to several brooks, as well as several ponds, the largest being Breed's Pond and Walden Pond (which has no relation to a similarly named pond in Concord). More than one-quarter of the town's land is covered by the Lynn Woods Reservation, which takes up much of the land in the northwestern part of the city. The city is also home to two beaches, Lynn Beach and King's Beach, both of which lie along Nahant Bay, as well as a boat ramp in Lynn Harbor.

Lynn is located in the southern part of Essex County and is 10 mi northeast of Boston and 22 mi west-southwest of Cape Ann. The city is bordered by Nahant to the southeast, Swampscott to the east, Salem to the northeast, Peabody to the north, Lynnfield to the northwest, Saugus to the west and Revere (in Suffolk County) to the south. Lynn's water rights extend into Nahant Bay and share Lynn Harbor with Nahant. There is no land connection to Revere; the only connection is the General Edwards Bridge across the Pines River. Besides its downtown district, Lynn is also divided into East Lynn and West Lynn, which are further divided into even smaller areas.

Lynn is loosely segmented into the following neighborhoods:

Central:
 * Downtown / Business District
 * Central Square

West Lynn:
 * Pine Hill
 * McDonough Sq./ Barry Park
 * Tower Hill / Austin Sq. – Saugus River
 * The Commons
 * The Brickyard
 * Walnut St./Lynnhurst
 * Veteran's Village

East Lynn:
 * Diamond District / Lynn Shore
 * Wyoma Sq.
 * The Highlands
 * The Fay Estates
 * Ward 1 / Lynnfield St.
 * Goldfish Pond
 * The Meadow / Keaney Park

Climate
Lynn experiences cold, snowy winters and warm, humid summers. The climate is similar to that of Boston.

According to the Köppen climate classification, Lynn has either a hot-summer humid continental climate (abbreviated Dfa), or a hot-summer humid sub-tropical climate (abbreviated Cfa), depending on the isotherm used.

2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 90,329 people, 33,310 households, and 20,988 families residing in the city.

The racial makeup of the city was:
 * 57.6% White
 * 12.8% African American
 * 0.7% Native American
 * 7.0% Asian
 * 0.1% Pacific Islander
 * 16.8% from other races
 * 5.0% from two or more races

Hispanic or Latino of any race were 32.1% of the population (10.5% Dominican, 6.3% Guatemalan, 5.4% Puerto Rican, 2.8% Salvadoran, 1.7% Mexican, 0.6% Honduran, 0.4% Colombian, 0.4% Spanish, 0.2% Peruvian, 0.2% Cuban).

Cambodians form the largest Asian origin group in Lynn, with 3.9% of Lynn's total population of Cambodian ancestry. Other large Asian groups are those of Vietnamese (1.0%), Indian (0.4%), Chinese (0.3%), and Laotian (0.2%) ancestry.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.9% under the age of 18 and 75.1% over 18. Males accounted for 49% and females 51%.

Between 2009 and 2013, the median household income in Lynn was $44,849. The per capita income was $22,982. About 21.0% of the population was considered below the poverty line.

Asian population
In 1990 Lynn had 2,993 persons of Asian origin. In 2000 Lynn had 5,730 Asians, an increase of over 91%, making it one of ten Massachusetts cities with the largest Asian populations. In 2000 the city had 3,050 persons of Cambodian origin, making them the largest Asian subgroup in Lynn. That year the city had 1,112 persons of Vietnamese origin and 353 persons of Indian origin. From 1990 to 2000 the Vietnamese and Indian populations increased by 192% and 264%, respectively.

By 2004 the Cambodian community in Lynn was establishing the Khmer Association of the North Shore.

Income
Data is from the 2009–2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

Government
Lynn is represented in the state legislature by officials elected from the following districts:
 * Massachusetts Senate's 3rd Essex district
 * Massachusetts House of Representatives' 8th Essex district
 * Massachusetts House of Representatives' 9th Essex district
 * Massachusetts House of Representatives' 10th Essex district
 * Massachusetts House of Representatives' 11th Essex district

Notable locations

 * Lynn as of 2022 is home to the Massachusetts Monarchs a minor league basketball team competing in The Basketball League.
 * Fraser Field, municipal baseball stadium constructed in the 1940s under the Works Progress Administration. It has housed many minor league baseball teams and a few major league exhibition games for the Boston Red Sox. Currently, it is the home of the North Shore Navigators of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
 * Manning Field, the municipal football stadium. It is the former site of Manning Bowl (c. 1936 – August 2005).
 * Lynn Memorial Auditorium
 * Mary Baker Eddy House
 * Lucian Newhall House
 * Grand Army of the Republic Hall (Lynn, Massachusetts)
 * Lynn Museum & Historical Society
 * Lynn Community Television
 * Capitol Diner
 * Lynn Masonic Hall
 * St. Stephen's Memorial Episcopal Church

Parks and recreation
Lynn was among the first communities in America to set aside a significant portion of its total land areas for open space—initially to secure a common public wood source. In 1693, Lynn restricted use of areas today encompassed by the Lynn Woods Reservation, and imposed fines for removing young trees. Although this land area was subsequently divided, in 1706, rights of public access were maintained, and, during the 19th century, recreational use of the woods increased.

In 1850, the first hiking club in New England—the Lynn Exploring Circle—was established. In 1881, a group of Lynn residents organized the Trustees of the Free Public Forest to protect Lynn Woods by acquiring land and gifting it to the City. Frederick Law Olmsted was hired as a design consultant for Lynn Woods, in 1889, whereupon he recommended keeping the land wild, adding only limited public access improvements.

Lynn Woods was among the natural resources that inspired landscape architect Charles Eliot and others to create Boston's Metropolitan Park System. In 1893, Eliot noted that Lynn Woods "constitute the largest and most interesting, because the wildest, public domain in all New England."

Today, Lynn has 49 parks encompassing 1,540 aggregate acres, representing about 22% of the city's total 6,874-acre land area. Consequently, 96% of all Lynn residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park or open space. The city's parks and open spaces include:

 * Lynn Shore Reservation
 * Lynn Woods Reservation, the largest municipal park in New England, at 2200 acre. The bulk of the Reservation's land area is situated in the City of Lynn, but portions fall within the boundaries of adjoining municipalities. Several historical sites such as Stone Tower, Steel Tower, the Wolf Pits, and Dungeon Rock, believed to be the site of still-unrecovered pirate treasure, are located here. Many schools have cross-country track meets in Lynn Woods.
 * Lynn Commons, an area between North and South Common Streets.
 * Lynn Heritage State Park
 * High Rock Tower, a stone observation tower with a view of Nahant, Boston, Downtown Lynn, Egg Rock, and the ocean. The top of the structure houses a telescope, which is open for the public to use.
 * Pine Grove Cemetery, an intact rural cemetery, and one of the largest cemeteries in the country. Ripley's Believe It or Not once claimed the fieldstone wall around the cemetery was the "second longest contiguous stone wall in the world", after the Great Wall of China.
 * Spring Pond, historic retreat of wild woodlands.
 * Goldfish Pond/Lafayette Park
 * Northern Strand Community Trail connects Lynn with Revere, Saugus, Malden, and Everett, Massachusetts.

Education
Lynn has three public high schools (Lynn English, Lynn Classical, and Lynn Vocational Technical High School), four middle/junior high schools, two alternative schools, and, as of Autumn 2015, 18 elementary schools. They are served by the Lynn Public Schools district.

KIPP: the Knowledge Is Power Program operates the KIPP Academy Lynn, a 5–8 charter middle school, and a charter high school called KIPP Academy Lynn Collegiate.

There is also an independent Catholic high school located in the city, St. Mary's High School. There are two Catholic primary schools, St. Pius V School and Sacred Heart School. There is also one interdenominational Christian school, North Shore Christian School.

North Shore Community College has a campus in downtown Lynn (with its other campuses located in Danvers and Beverly).

Transportation
Lynn has no Interstate or controlled-access highways, the nearest being U.S. Route 1 in Saugus and Lynnfield, and the combined Interstate 95 and Route 128 in Lynnfield. (The original design of Interstate 95 called for a route that would have paralleled Route 107 and crossed Lynn—including Lynn Woods—but the project was cancelled in 1972. ) However, Massachusetts State Route 1A, Route 107, Route 129 and Route 129A all pass through Lynn. Route 107 passes from southwest to northeast along a relatively straight right-of-way through the city. It shares a 0.5 mi concurrency with Route 129A, which follows Route 129's old route through the city between its parent route and Route 1A. Route 129 passes from the north of the city before turning south and passing through the downtown area and becoming concurrent with Route 1A for 1 mi. Route 1A passes from Revere along the western portion of the Lynnway, a divided highway within the city, before passing further inland into Swampscott. The Lynnway itself runs along the coastline, leading to a rotary, which links the road to Nahant Road and Lynn Shore Drive, which follows the coast into Swampscott.

Lynn is served by Lynn station on the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, as well as River Works station (which is for GE Aviation employees only). A number of other stations were open until the mid 20th century. Numerous MBTA bus routes also connect Lynn with Boston and the neighboring communities. An extension of the Blue Line to downtown Lynn has been proposed, but not funded. A ferry service to downtown Boston was operated in 2014, 2015, and 2017. The nearest airport is Boston's Logan International Airport, about 5 mi south.

Notable people

 * Harry Agganis, All-American quarterback at Boston University and Boston Red Sox player
 * Corinne Alphen, model and actress
 * Stan Andrews, major league baseball player
 * Julie Archoska, football player
 * Paul Barresi, pornographic actor
 * Verna Bloom, American actress (Animal House, High Plains Drifter, The Last Temptation of Christ)
 * Ben Bowden, pitcher on 2014 Vanderbilt Commodores baseball team; currently pitches for the Atlanta Braves and has pitched for the Colorado Rockies
 * Estelle Parsons, actress, singer and stage director, Best Supporting Actress 1967 Academy Awards, was born at Lynn in 1927.
 * Walter Brennan, actor, winner of three Academy Awards, was born in Lynn
 * Les Burke, major league baseball player
 * Marion Cowan Burrows, physician and pharmacist, state legislator (1928–1932) representing Lynn
 * John Deering, major league baseball player
 * Joe Dixon, jazz clarinet player
 * Frederick Douglass, abolitionist
 * Charles Remond Douglass, soldier
 * Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science
 * Zari Elmassian, singer, born in Lynn
 * Derek Falvey, Major League Baseball executive, was raised in Lynn
 * Josh Fogg, major league baseball player
 * James Durrell Greene, famous inventor and US Civil War Brevet Brigadier General, was born in Lynn
 * Bump Hadley, major league baseball player
 * Neil Hamilton, actor, played "Commissioner Gordon" on TV's Batman
 * George E. Harney, architect
 * Jim Hegan, major league baseball player
 * Frederick Herzberg, psychologist, most famous for introducing job enrichment and the Motivator-Hygiene theory, was born in Lynn
 * Ken Hill, professional baseball player
 * Chris Howard, professional baseball pitcher
 * Ruth Bancroft Law, aviator, was born in Lynn
 * Jerry Maren, longtime character actor who played the middle "Lollipop Guild" member in 1939's "The Wizard Of Oz" film
 * Jan Ernst Matzeliger, Surinamese inventor of shoe-manufacturing equipment, lived in Lynn
 * Linda McCarriston, poet, was born and raised in Lynn
 * Thomas M. McGee, attorney, State Representative, State Senator, Mayor of Lynn
 * Thomas W. McGee, City Councillor, State Representative, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
 * Ralph McLane, clarinetist
 * Walter Mears, journalist
 * Ralph Merry, founder of Magog, Quebec, was born in Lynn in 1753.
 * Mike Ness, musician, founder of the rock band, Social Distortion. Born in Lynn
 * Alex Newell, actor and singer, notably from the hit TV series Glee
 * Jack Noseworthy, actor
 * Mike Pazik, major league baseball player
 * William Dudley Pelley, founder of the Silver Legion of America
 * Lotta S. Rand, social worker, Red Cross worker in WWI France
 * Ruth Roman, actress, notably from Strangers on a Train, was born in Lynn
 * Tom Rowe, professional hockey player
 * Blondy Ryan, major league baseball player
 * Harold Shapero, Composer and educator, was born in Lynn
 * Todd Smith, pro wrestler
 * Louise Spizizen, composer, musician, and author
 * Susan Stafford, original hostess of Wheel of Fortune
 * Lesley Stahl, television journalist, 60 Minutes, was born in Lynn
 * Gasper Urban, football player
 * Holman K. Wheeler, architect of more than 400 structures in Lynn
 * Frances Hodges White, children's author
 * Tom Whelan, major league baseball player
 * John Yau, poet and art critic

In popular culture

 * Many versions of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme "Trot, trot to Boston" include Lynn as the second destination.
 * Scenes from the movie Surrogates (2009), especially the chase scene, were filmed in downtown Lynn. Lynn native Jack Noseworthy starred in the film, and has said he pushes Lynn as a location whenever involved in a project.
 * The character of Freddie Quell in The Master (2012) is from Lynn and returns there for a scene, though it was filmed in California.
 * The movie Black Mass (2015) starring Johnny Depp feature several scenes shot in Lynn.
 * The high school scene in Central Intelligence (2016) was filmed at Lynn Classical and Lynn English high schools.
 * Several scenes in Sound of Metal (2019) were filmed in Lynn.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lynn, Massachusetts


text:
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts

Manchester-by-the-Sea (also known simply as Manchester, its name prior to 1990) is a coastal town on Cape Ann, in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is known for scenic beaches and vista points. According to the 2020 population census, the population is 5,395.

The town lies on the southern side of Cape Ann, at the point where the peninsula meets the mainland. The North Shore was populated by the Agawam people prior to European settlement, which began in 1629, about a decade after an epidemic killed much of the native people. Fishing was the major industry in the town almost from its incorporation in 1645, but in the mid-19th century it began to grow as a popular seaside resort community. The town has appeared, either by name or as a filming location, in a number of films and TV shows, notably the eponymous 2016 film Manchester by the Sea.

History
Native Americans inhabited what would become northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas. The area that would become Manchester was inhabited by Agawam people at the time of contact in the early 1600s, who were decimated by virgin soil epidemics especially in 1617–1619, after which fewer than 50 indigenous individuals are estimated to have survived within the modern bounds of Manchester.

Manchester was first settled by English colonists in 1629 and was officially incorporated in 1645. It was formed from territory taken from Salem (that portion since given to Beverly) and Gloucester. In 1700, Manchester selectmen paid three grandchildren of Agawam sachem Masconomet three pounds and nineteen shillings for the rights to the land.

The community thrived primarily as a fishing community for more than 200 years. Beginning in 1845, it started to attract summer residents from the Boston area after poet Richard Dana built a house in the town. Over the next fifty years, development of summer houses along the coastline established the community as Boston society's community of choice for summer residency. The trend continued with designs of houses by architects, such as "Sunnywaters", designed by John Hubbard Sturgis for his older brother, Russell, in 1863.

The best known of these "summer cottages" was Kragsyde, completed in 1885. Commissioned by George Nixon Black, the Peabody and Stearns-designed residence has been hailed as the zenith of the Shingle style substyle of the Queen Anne style of architecture. It was demolished in 1929.

Name
To prevent confusion with the nearby and much larger city of Manchester, New Hampshire, the name of the town was officially changed in 1989 following a close town meeting vote that year; the decision was extremely close and passed only by a vote of 97 to 95. This was ratified by an act of the state legislature passed on September 25, 1989. "Manchester by the Sea" was a familiar alternative town name since it was first used in 1877 by Boston publisher James T. Fields while attending an annual summer picnic of the "Manchester Elder Brethren" that still takes place today. The name change was driven by Edward Corley, a longtime resident of Manchester.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 47.3 km2, of which 23.9 km2 is land and 23.4 km2, or 49.47%, is water. The town lies along the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay, which in turn leads to the Atlantic Ocean. There are seven beaches lining the coast, and several small islands dot the coast, the largest being Kettle Island and House Island.

Several small coves edge the coast, the largest being Manchester Harbor, which is fed by Sawmill Brook and other small bodies of water. There are several protected areas within town, including Cedar Swamp Conservation Area, Cheever Commons Conservation Area, Coolidge Reservation, Dexter Pond, Owl's Nest Nature Preservation Land, Powder House Hill Reservation, and Wyman Hill Conservation Area.

Manchester-by-the-Sea is bordered by Beverly and Wenham to the west, Hamilton to the northwest, Essex to the north, and Gloucester to the east. The town is located 9 mi northeast of Salem and 24 mi northeast of Boston.

Transportation
Manchester-by-the-Sea lies along Massachusetts Route 128, the inner of two beltways around Greater Boston. Route 128 has two exits within town as it passes from Beverly to Gloucester, with a small portion crossing through the corner of Essex. Route 127 also passes from west to east through town, traveling through the center of town. There is no bus service directly into town, with service passing east via the Cape Ann Transportation Authority in Gloucester, and an MBTA bus route providing service to Beverly.

The town is served by a stop along the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail, providing service from Rockport along the North Shore to Boston's North Station. The nearest airport is the Beverly Municipal Airport, with the nearest national and international service at Boston's Logan International Airport.

Demographics
As of the census of 2010, there were 5,136 people, 2,147 households, and 1,444 families residing in the town. The population density was 562.7 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 97.6% White, (5,012); 0.9% Asian, (46); 0.2% Native American, (10); 0.1% African American, (5); 0.1% from other races, and 1.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.5% (77) of the population. The median income for a household in the town was $95,243, and the median income for a family was $109,760. About 4.5% of families and 5.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.9% of those under age 18 and 3.7% of those age 65 or over.

Journalism
The local newspaper, The Manchester Cricket, has published weekly since 1888. The newspaper has been owned by just three families since it began. Within the Cricket, there is a special section dedicated to the neighboring town, Essex. This section is called The Essex Echo. The town is also served by a regional newspaper, the Gloucester Daily Times.

Education
The community lies within the Manchester Essex Regional School District.

Controversies
The Manchester-by-the-Sea Police Department have been subject to controversy, including sexual harassment by sworn officers, with allegations "that officials had permitted a sexually hostile environment, and that Christopher Locke, an officer in the police department, made a secret recording of [a young woman], violating the state's wiretap law."

Howard Lewis, who had been appointed as a reserve officer in 2008 and a full-time officer in 2010, had been assigned to the 12 to 8 a.m. shift and served as the department's primary firearms instructor, when he was placed on administrative leave amid an internal affairs investigation on December 15, according to Manchester-by-the-Sea Police Chief Edward Conley. An internal affairs investigation determined he stole a firearm from the police station and sold it to a pawn shop for $650.

Manchester-by-the-Sea Police Department Sergeant John "Jay" Swallow was sentenced to jail for the vicious beating of his wife and weapons charges. He engaged in a physical altercation while pointing a handgun at both his wife and the family dog.

Singing Beach
1 mi from the town center is Singing Beach, so named because the sand comprising the beach squeaks when walked upon. The sand is an iridescent color when the sun sets. This beach is quite popular during summer months in particular, because it is easily accessible from Boston by a 1/2 mi walk from the MBTA train station. Also located on this historic beach is the famous tourist attraction "Eaglehead", a rock composite that is the focal point of rock climbing and other recreation activities.

Other points of interest

 * The Monoliths (Manchester-by-the-Sea) (Formerly known as Agassiz Rock)
 * Masconomo Park
 * Coolidge Reservation
 * Crow Island
 * Kragsyde
 * Smith's Point
 * Manchester Historical Museum (Trask House)
 * Tucks Point
 * Cathedral Pines

Film and television references
The town provided the backdrop for these films:
 * Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)
 * Mermaids (1990)
 * The Good Son (1993)
 * The Love Letter (1999)
 * State and Main (2000)
 * What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001; standing in for Marblehead, Massachusetts)
 * The Proposal (2009; standing in for Sitka, Alaska)
 * Edge of Darkness (2010)
 * Joy (2015)
 * Manchester by the Sea (2016)
 * Daddy's Home 2 (2017)

It was also featured in a season of the TV series This Old House, and was featured in a "Main Streets and Back Roads" episode of Chronicle, a newsmagazine program in New England.

Notable people

 * Junius Brutus Booth Jr., brother of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin. Died September 17, 1883. Buried in Manchester-by-the-Sea
 * Nat Faxon, comedian and Oscar winner for adapted screenplay for The Descendants at the 84th Academy Awards
 * Josh Gates, host of Destination Truth, Expedition Unknown , and other Discovery shows —former resident
 * Rufus Gifford, United States ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark from 2013–2017
 * Elizabeth Porter Gould, poet and author
 * Sprague Grayden, actress
 * Henry Northey Hooper, manufacturer and Boston politician
 * William Northey Hooper, a founder of the sugar industry in Hawaii
 * Joe Lloyd, professional golfer
 * James McMillan, Michigan senator instrumental in the design of the Washington Mall, died (1902) at his summer home in Manchester-by-the-Sea
 * Susan Minot, author
 * Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted child sex trafficker
 * Ray Ozzie, software entrepreneur
 * George Putnam III, trustee of Putnam Investments
 * Gardner Read, composer
 * David I. Robinson, politician
 * Jay Severin, radio talk show host
 * Josiah Spaulding, businessman, attorney, and politician; chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party from 1965–1970

title: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts


text:
Merrimac, Massachusetts

Merrimac is a small town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the southeastern border of New Hampshire, approximately 34 mi northeast of Boston and 10 mi west of the Atlantic Ocean. It was incorporated on April 11, 1876. It is situated along the north bank of the Merrimack River in the Merrimack Valley. The population was 6,723 at the 2020 census. Historically a mill town, it has long since become a largely residential community. It is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area.

History
Settled by the English in 1638 as a part of Salisbury and later as a part of Amesbury around the village of Merrimacport, it was known throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an agricultural and fishing community, with a small amount of shipbuilding. When Amesbury separated from Salisbury in 1666, Merrimac was referred to as the West Parish of Amesbury, or simply West Amesbury, although it was unincorporated. When a border dispute between the Massachusetts and New Hampshire colonies was settled in 1741, the new border sliced off the parts of Amesbury that were further from the Merrimack River, with the area then associated with West Amesbury becoming the "new town" of Newton, New Hampshire.

In 1771, the West Parish of Amesbury (present-day Merrimac) had a population of at least four enslaved Africans. They were held in bondage by town residents Isaac Merrill, Benjamin Morse, and Wells Chase. At least one former enslaved African, "Forte," who was sold by an unknown West Newbury slaver to Christopher Sargent, became locally famous for his fiddling after the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts.

In the nineteenth century, benefiting from a manufacturing boom following the establishment of some of the first planned industrial cities in the United States, nearby Lawrence and Lowell, Merrimac came to be known worldwide for its horse-drawn carriage industry. During this period, the town proper of Merrimac, centered around Merrimac Square, expanded separately from the village of Merrimacport. In 1876, Merrimac, including Merrimacport, separated from Amesbury and officially incorporated itself as a town. It is believed that the town, as well as the river that runs along its southern border, are both named for the American Indian tribe that occupied the region. "Merrimac" (or Merrimack) means "swift water place" in the language of this tribe. This town center consists of the typical brick buildings and Victorian architecture of the late nineteenth century, and it is surrounded by much of the town's population. Interstate 495 now divides Merrimacport from Merrimac. At the beginning of the twentieth century, as with the rest of the New England, it went through a period of deindustrialization as the region's industry relocated to the Midwest. The communities of the Merrimack Valley, including Merrimac, were particularly affected by this long period of economic decline and have never fully recovered.

Today, Merrimac is a typical small New England community. It went through numerous growth spurts throughout the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-first century as it was absorbed into the Lawrence metropolitan area.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 22.9 sqkm, of which 21.9 sqkm is land and 1.0 sqkm, or 4.48%, is water. Merrimac is drained by the Merrimack River, whose north bank the town lies on. Located in the Merrimack River Valley and on the coastal plain of Massachusetts, Merrimac's land consists mainly of small, forested hills (before the twentieth century, it was mostly pasture). The town also has several ponds, streams and Lake Attitash (which is located partially in Merrimac, and partially in neighboring Amesbury).

Merrimac is roughly diamond-shaped, and is bordered by Amesbury and Lake Attitash to the northeast, West Newbury to the southeast, Haverhill to the southwest, Newton, New Hampshire, to the north and northwest, South Hampton, New Hampshire, to the far northeast, and Plaistow, New Hampshire, on the western corner. The town is 14 mi northeast of Lawrence, 30 mi southeast of Manchester, New Hampshire, and 34 mi north of Boston. Merrimac lies along Interstate 495, with Exit 115 (old exit 53) giving access to the town. Massachusetts Route 110 also passes through the town, just north of I-495. There are no bridges crossing the Merrimack directly into the town; the Rocks Village Bridge lies just to the south of town in Haverhill, and the nearest downstream crossing is the Whittier Memorial Bridge in Amesbury.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,138 people, 2,233 households, and 1,699 families residing in the town. The population density was 719.6 PD/sqmi. There were 2,295 housing units at an average density of 269.1 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the town was 98.27% White, 0.39% African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.29% from other races, and 0.65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.90% of the population.

There were 2,233 households, out of which 40.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.8% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.9% were non-families. 19.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.16.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 29.0% under the age of 18, 5.0% from 18 to 24, 31.4% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $58,692, versus $65,401 statewide, and the median income for a family was $69,118. Males had a median income of $48,718 versus $35,325 for females. The per capita income for the town was $24,869. About 1.9% of families and 2.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.7% of those under age 18 and 7.7% of those age 65 or over.

Government
Merrimac is governed by the New England town meeting form of government, a kind of participatory direct democracy. Three selectmen are elected to administer the government, but all major decisions, as well as many minor decisions, are handled during the town's annual town meeting, as well as special town meetings, if required. The board of selectman has three seats. The current chair of the board is Chris Manni, Ben Beaulieu is the clerk, and the other member is Irina Gorzynski.

Per the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, any resident of Merrimac may introduce legislation with the support of 10 registered voters.

Merrimac is part of the Massachusetts Senate's 1st Essex district.

Education
The following schools in the Pentucket Regional School District serve the town of Merrimac. All regional schools, however, are located in neighboring West Newbury. Merrimac High School operated until 1958, but closed when Pentucket Regional High School opened.

 * Frederick N. Sweetsir School – named for a doctor who practiced in Merrimac
 * Helen R. Donaghue School – named for a former principal of the school
 * Pentucket Regional Middle School
 * Pentucket Regional High School

For high school, students also have the option of attending the following vocational/agricultural schools.

 * Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School
 * Essex Agricultural and Technical High School

Notable people

 * Dennis Berran, outfielder for the Chicago White Sox
 * Pat Freiermuth, Tight End for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, drafted 55th overall in 2021
 * Richard P. Gabriel, computer scientist known for his contributions to the Lisp programming language community
 * Ephraim Morse, early settler of San Diego, California and one of the founders of Balboa Park
 * Henry Boynton Smith, Presbyterian theologian
 * Kevin J. Sullivan, Massachusetts politician and former mayor of Lawrence
 * George W. Weymouth, Massachusetts politician and former U.S. Representative

Sites of interest

 * Lake Attitash (and Indian Head Park)
 * The Merrimac Public Library, which is part of the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium.
 * Merrimac Square
 * Merrimac Town Forest
 * Merrimac Training Field
 * Merrimacport

Annual events
Merrimac is home to several regional events:
 * The Merrimac Santa Parade
 * Merrimac Old Home Days

title: Merrimac, Massachusetts