It was Twentyfive years ago...

November 28, 2006 12:25 PM

City in Flames Twenty Five years ago the City of Lynn Massachusetts experienced its second great fire. Devastating several downtown industrial buildings dating to the rise of the Shoe industry. All of which were undergoing redevelopment. While nowhere near as big as the Great Boston Fire of 1872, or the various Chelsea fires, the tragedy of the story is the empty wasteland that still sits after all these years. Today the Boston Globe dug up several articles from their pre Web vaults. The Lynn Museum has an exhibit, and the Lynn Library will have a slideshow.
posted by Gungho (9 comments total)

Sorry if the links are a little garbled. It is my first post in the Blue.
posted by Gungho at 12:29 PM on November 28, 2006

Here in the area we say "Lynn, Lynn, the City of Sin." I didn't know it's gotten smited so often. At least they didn't have it as bad as Port Royal, Jamaica.
posted by XMLicious at 12:49 PM on November 28, 2006

Good post
posted by briank at 12:50 PM on November 28, 2006

I believe the full rhyme is

Lynn, Lynn, city of sin
You never come out the way you went in
Ask for water, they give you gin
it's the darndest city I ever been in.
posted by bobobox at 12:55 PM on November 28, 2006

Can someone expand on the "empty wasteland"? Has the burned area not been redeveloped after all this time?
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:20 PM on November 28, 2006

Bobo, that's the rhyme. I like that one...so true. One of my best friends is from that town, and I learned that rhyme as a kid.
posted by orchidthief at 1:40 PM on November 28, 2006

Schoolgirl, The sat view shows the North Shore community college which was planned to use some of the burned buildings. Now a concrete mess of a sprawling school surrounded by parking lots and vacant lots. As you can see this is adjacent to prime waterfront. The building in the upper left is a huge public garage that is mostly empty due to the number of break-ins and stolen cars.
posted by Gungho at 2:03 PM on November 28, 2006

Also: Trot trot to Boston. Trot trot to Lynn. Watch out little boy you don't fall in.
Which is usually chanted by a grandfather bouncing a little one on his knee and feigning to drop him on the floor on the last verse.
posted by Gungho at 2:05 PM on November 28, 2006

Oh, so that explains why my rent in Lynn is so low.
posted by mkb at 5:50 AM on November 29, 2006