Elihu Thompson Administration Building - Swampscott Town Hall
Now the Swampscott Administration building, this was once Elihu Thomson's house. Pictured below is Elihu Thomson and his wife, Mary Louise Peck Thomson.
Designed by James Kelly, in 1887, the Georgian revival is where Elihu Thomson lived from 1889 until his death in 1937, working on many of the 700 patents he held.
He worked on many inventions in a carriage house that was unfortunately removed, making way for more administration offices.
There was also an observatory that no longer exists.
Thomson was founder of Thomson-Houston Electric, which merged with Thomas Edison's, Edison General Electric, creating, General Electric, or GE. One of two original plants still in operation is the Lynn plant on Western Ave.
Town hall meetings and other town board meetings take place here.
 |
| New Addition |
 |
| Back of Building |
I live right around the corner from here and I had no idea that used to be his house!
ReplyDeleteI have never been inside but it is on my list. When I was little we would walk the beach, get an ice cream at Doane's--now Mission on the Bay, and if we were lucky and it was timed just right, we'd run around the lawn barefooy when the sprinklers were on--at that time the wall went around the whole lawn.
ReplyDeleteWe do the tours at Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn and we stop at Elihu Thomson's grave and tell the history which is overlooking the pond.
I just read a great historical fiction book that is now being made into a movie called "The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore. It is about the early days after the invention of electricity when Edison, Westinghouse, Tesla and Thomson were all vying to create and control the nascent electrical industry--and how GE was born.