Historic GE sites torn down

LYNN – The laboratory where General Electric scientists searched for ways to make the company?s products lighter and stronger has been torn down along with an adjoining former reception area.Building 68, better known to River Works employees as Thompson Lab, and Building 45 were demolished, said company spokesman Richard Gorham, after disrepair and maintenance costs caught up with the buildings.?We refurbished other buildings in the plant and relocated the employees there,” Gorham stated in an email Wednesday.Built in 1913, Building 45 was the first location in the sprawling River Works complex visitors stopped in for years before being escorted to other buildings. It subsequently housed employee services and human relations offices within sight of Western Avenue.Gorham said an archway connected Building 45 to Building 68, built in 1917, where the Thompson Lab housed engineers who experimented with perfecting, in Gorham?s words, “materials and alloys to make our products stronger and more durable, lighter and less expensive.”He said demolition on both buildings is in the final debris removal stage.The demolitions represent a relatively small project compared to GE?s decision to tear down its former gear plant near the River Works? Lynnway side.Built in 1941, the plant saw its peak production in the 1970s before turning out its final gear in 2010. GE executives considered then abandoned a proposal to build locomotives in the plant in 2011 – setting the stage for the factory?s demolition.City Planning Board members in June approved a plan to allow the gear plant property to be subdivided into three lots, with one slated to be sold for development. GE will keep the others and the fuel tanks and utility buildings located on them.The lot planned for sale totals 64 acres with residential development plans matching the property?s city zoning as a residential high-rise building or hotel.Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Executive Director James Cowdell and Community Development Director James Marsh sent a letter to the board voicing their collective support of the project. The three called the project critical to the future of the waterfront.The letter also pointed out the property is unique in that it includes a defunct train stop and a view of the water. The gear plant land is located next to the commuter railroad line running from Boston through Lynn with a River Works stop on the rail line.