Leather industry holding on in Lynn's Blood Building |
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“We make all leather goods from scratch,” Bona said. O’Donnell sells some of his products to Midwestern leather outlet stores and some of his goods are sold online or to contractors who order items like the 100-cloth drawstring bags Escobar stitched on Monday. Imports from China, India, Pakistan and Mexico have whittled away over the years at O’Donnell’s customer base and his income. Leather factories were operating in Lynn before America fought its way from colony to country. The shoe industry exploded locally in the 19th century and O’Donnell recalled when Lynn had 5,000 union shoe workers with half of them working in seven of the largest local shops. O’Donnell’s father opened a leather factory in 1946 in Salem and O’Donnell started learning the leather trade at the age of 11. He swept floors and ran cutting machines like the 60-year-old ones still operational in his shop. After he finished a stint in the Navy in 1959, his father handed over the business to him. “He said, ‘Do with it what you want,’” O’Donnell said. F&J O’Donnell’s survived even as the leather industry died out in Lynn. Located in the Vamp building during the 1981 fire, O’Donnell said workers extinguished flames igniting on the shop windows even as manufacturing continued inside the shop. “We made a decent living,” he said. He said he has kept the business open to reciprocate the loyalty 23-year employee Escobar has shown him and with support from Blood building’s owner, the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation. “(Executive director) Jim Cowdell has been very good to me,” he said. O’Donnell is not sure how long F&J Leather will stay in business, but he said coming to work beats the alternative. “Sitting at home watching TV is not for me,” he said. Thor Jourgensen can be reached at tjourgensen@itemlive.com
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