A publication of Essex Media Group Publisher Edward M. Grant Chief Executive Officer Michael H. Shanahan Directors Edward L. Cahill John M. Gilberg Edward M. Grant Gordon R. Hall Monica Connell Healey J. Patrick Norton Michael H. Shanahan Chief Financial Officer William J. Kraft Chief Operating Officer James N. Wilson Community Relations Director Carolina Trujillo Controller Susan Conti Editor Paul K. Halloran Jr. Editorial Director Thor Jourgensen Contributing Writers Bill Brotherton Gayla Cawley Bella diGrazia Thomas Grillo Steve Krause Bridget Turcotte Photographers Spenser Hasak Owen O’Rourke Advertising Design Trevor Andreozzi Advertising Sales Ernie Carpenter David McBournie Ralph Mitchell Patricia Whalen Production Tori Faieta Mark Sutherland ESSEX MEDIA GROUP 110 Munroe St., Lynn, MA 01901 781-593-7700 ext.1234 Subscriptions: 781-593-7700 ext. 1253 <strong>01940</strong>themagazine.com LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER 06 What’s up 08 Local Flavor 10 Open for business 12 The house where the town meets 16 East meets West INSIDE 2O The tale of the Trail 22 Library turns a page 26 Style 28 Pumping help to Zambia 30 House money 32 Closing the Perley gates TED GRANT From the horse’s mouth Please allow me to introduce myself and the magazine you’re perusing. As the heading says, I’m the publisher. Not that that should impress you, but even less so will my knowledge of your town. It is, shall we say, lacking. It’s also pretty out of date. Other than my now-frequent stops at Boloco and Vineyard Vines at MarketStreet, the only quality time I've spent in Lynnfield was decades ago. While in high school, my St. Mary’s friends Billy Collins, Brian O’Shea, Dickie Powers, Ray McDermott, and I would hitchhike Lynnfield Street in Lynn to a grammar school gym in Lynnfield to play basketball. And I remember a kid from Lynnfield who loved to point out that every other letter in his name — Ara Sakayan — was an a. And 42 years ago I helped my friend Tom Dalton move. I can’t decide if the highlight of that day was when I ripped my hand open on a metal piece on a cardboard box; the blisters on the soles of my feet from playing basketball barefoot on a tar court; or getting the daylights beaten out of me during that game by his rugby teammates/moving-crew pals. That pretty much sums up my Lynnfield bona fides. Suffice to say, I was short on ideas for content for this, the inaugural edition of <strong>01940</strong>. So I did what I always do: turn to our staff. I’m biased, but I think Essex Media Group’s editorial staff did a good job coming up with stories that capture the flavor of the town — once rural, but now decidedly affluent. Bridget Turcotte — fresh from earning a prestigious fellowship from the New England First Amendment Coalition — tried to track down the oldest resident in town to tell tales of Lynnfield past vs. present. No luck. The Town Clerk was on vacation and the assistant was unable to filter resident data by age. Then Bridget heard about a family with horses on Chestnut Street. Perfect. That reflects the town's rural history, and how hard could it be to find the horses? Hard. Bridget turned to 50-year resident and unofficial town historian Helen Breen, who spoke passionately about Lynnfield, and whose children went to school with the daughter of the family with the horses. A Google search turned up an address for the daughter, a neighbor of her parents — and the horses. With photographer Spenser Hasak in tow, Bridget knocked on a few doors. When they reached the property they were looking for, they knew it. The house sat on a large plot of land with an old barn and a sprawling field. At the end of a long driveway, a woman sat in a rocker on the porch, looping circles of yarn and pulling tight. It was picturesque. The woman was kind, and she agreed to a story about the horses and how they demonstrate the old and the new Lynnfield. But there was a problem. The horses were nowhere to be found. The homeowner, who boards the horses for their owner, said they’d be back the next week. The horses were on vacation in Maine. Please enjoy the first edition of <strong>01940</strong>, and let us know what you think of it. Please also send along any ideas for stories you might want to see in future editions. Me? I’m still trying to erase the thought of the horses sunning themselves on Old Orchard Beach, wearing straw hats and a thick smear of white sunscreen over their muzzles, flipping through Mr. Ed's autobiography. COVER Cheryl Welsh, a teacher at Summer Street Elementary School, stands among Chinese empresses as she explores "Empresses of China's Forbidden City" exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. Welsh recently came back from China where she was participating in a teaching program with Chinese educators. PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK 02 | <strong>01940</strong>
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