The first company to reside at the corner of East 25th and Ash streets in Erie was the The Erie Boot and Shoe Company. They were one of the six companies that had manufactured leather goods in the City in the late 1800s. The building is still standing today at 602 East 25th Street. The J. H. Bennett Storage & Carting and NuBone Corset Company was located in this building for some number of years.
The Erie Boot and Shoe Company was started in 1871 with a $100,000 investment and by 1882 their annual output was 1,800 cases of boots and 2,800 dozen shoes, with annual sales amounting to $225,000 a year. Joseph Eichenlaub, a native of Germany, was the president and general manager of the company, and J. W. Ryan was the treasurer. By 1882 the company employed between 75 and 100 people, with a factory that was 35 feet wide on the East 25th Street side, and 150 feet in length along Ash Street.
Erie Boot made ladies, misses, men and youths boots and shoes. The factory was divided into several departments: cutting of upper leather, the cutting of sole leather, the crimping, bottoming, treeing, stitching, finishing and packing. They sold their footwear throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.
The Nubone Corset Company was located in the Erie Boot and Shoe Company’s building for some number of years after the footwear company went out of business.
The Nubone Corset Company was started in 1910 in the City of Corry, before moving to Erie. They did a fantastic business until corsets went out of fashion and the Great Depression drove them out of business in the late 1930s. They used to manufacture a high end baby clothing line called winkies, but their main product and claim to fame was the patent they held and the fabrication of the NuBone Corset.
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| Erie Boot and Shoe Company, East 25th and Ash Streets. |
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| The NuBone Corset Company, (1928) |
