Ask someone who has never been to Lynn what they know about it, and you are likely to get a raised eyebrow or a vague reference to an old rhyme. Ask someone who lives there, and you will get something altogether different: a genuine enthusiasm for the city’s parks, its food, its waterfront, and its surprising depth of history. Lynn has long been underrated as a destination, but that reputation is increasingly at odds with reality — and a growing number of visitors are beginning to notice.
Lynn Woods Reservation
Start here. Lynn Woods Reservation is the crown jewel of the city’s outdoor offerings and one of the most impressive municipal parks anywhere in the United States. At more than 2,200 acres, it is the second largest municipal park in the country, and it sits largely hidden from view — tucked between the suburban sprawl of Route 1 and the dense neighborhoods of central Lynn, accessible from Pennybrook Road.
The reservation was established in 1881 and encompasses over 30 miles of marked trails suitable for hiking, running, mountain biking, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing. Three active reservoirs provide drinking water to the city and offer serene, pond-like scenery throughout the woods. For mountain bikers, the rugged terrain is considered among the best in the Boston area. Rock climbers will find nearly a thousand documented bouldering routes scattered across the reservation’s granite outcroppings.
No visit to Lynn Woods is complete without a stop at Dungeon Rock, a cave entered through a small door set into a hillside. The cave descends roughly 150 feet before the ceiling becomes too low to stand — and according to local legend, a pirate named Thomas Veale hid his treasure inside it in the early 1700s. In 1852, a spiritualist named Hiram Marble became convinced that the pirate’s ghost was communicating with him and began digging deeper into the rock in search of the fortune. He never found it, but the tunnel he excavated is open to the public and remains one of the more genuinely eccentric historical sites in Massachusetts.
Stone Tower, perched atop Burrill Hill — the highest point in the reservation at around 272 feet — was built in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration as a fire observation tower. Refurbished in 2010, it offers sweeping views of the Lynn skyline, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Boston skyline to the southwest. It even makes a cameo in the video game Fallout 4, which is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Boston area.
Lynn Shore Reservation and King’s Beach
Lynn’s eastern edge runs along Nahant Bay, and the Lynn Shore Reservation stretches along this coastline with walking paths, open lawns, and views that on a clear day extend well out to sea. King’s Beach, at the southern end of the shore, connects Lynn to Swampscott and offers a wide, sandy strand popular with local families. The walk from Swampscott to Nahant along the waterfront is a leisurely and scenic route well worth the effort.
High Rock Park and Tower
Perched in the Highlands neighborhood of Lynn, High Rock Park was designed in 1907 by the Olmsted Brothers — the same firm responsible for some of the most celebrated landscapes in American history. The park’s principal feature is High Rock Tower, an 85-foot Romanesque Revival stone structure completed in 1904. From the top, visitors get a commanding panoramic view of the surrounding North Shore, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Boston skyline. The site has a history stretching back to the 1600s, when it served as a gathering place for the Pawtucket people and the headquarters of their chief, Nanapashemet.
The Lynn Museum & Arts Center
Located in the heart of the Downtown Lynn Cultural District on Washington Street, the Lynn Museum & Arts Center has been preserving the city’s history since 1897. The museum holds a collection of nearly 10,000 objects chronicling Lynn’s evolution from a colonial settlement to one of the world’s largest shoe manufacturing centers at the turn of the twentieth century. Changing exhibitions explore everything from the city’s industrial past to the contributions of its immigrant communities to contemporary local artists. The museum is free on Wednesdays and is open Thursday through Saturday during regular hours.
Downtown Lynn Cultural District
Central Square and the surrounding downtown blocks offer more than 20 international restaurants, public art installations, galleries, and independent shops. The area has been designated a Cultural District by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and it reflects the rich diversity of the city’s population in a way that few places in the region can match. The Grand Army of the Republic Hall on Andrew Street — one of the last functioning GAR halls in the country and the last in Massachusetts — houses six rooms of Civil War and Revolutionary War memorabilia and is open to history enthusiasts by appointment.
