LYNN – After more than six decades in business, Lynn Lumber has closed its doors.”It’s terrible news,” said Ward 6 City Councilor Peter Capano. “They’ve been part of the neighborhood since I was a kid.”Tuesday the doors of the Commercial Street landmark were shuttered and a sign on the fence to the back parking lot stated that the store had closed its doors after 68 years of business. It also thanked its patrons.Founded in 1945 by Hyman Kessel, during its prime Lynn Lumber was said to be the largest supplier of restoration materials in New England.”It’s a sad day,” said Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Executive Director James Cowdell. “They’ve been there as long as I’ve been around.”Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy echoed Cowdell, also calling it a sad loss.Capano, who said he knew the Kessel family for years, said he knew the store was struggling but he hoped it would be able to hang on.”The economy killed it I guess,” he said.In an interview with the Item published in 1988, proprietor Richard Kessel, Hyman Kessel’s grandson, said when his grandfather opened Lynn Lumber it was one of eight lumber yards in the city and the only one that stood the test of time.Richard Kessel could not be reached for comment but Capano said he wouldn’t be the only one to miss the store.”They will be missed by all the people that have been going there day after day year after year,” he said. “Like my father.”Capano said his father has gone to Lynn Lumber almost weekly since he first moved to Lynn from Italy in 1955. He enjoyed the store that held bins of long strips of molding of every design, stacks of pressed tin, aisles of paint supplies, glues and adhesives, cleaning supplies, portions of stair and pillars, and catalogs of architectural details to pour through. The back parking lot is lined with bays that held wood both exotic and ordinary of every shape and size, that staffers would willingly help customers dig through to find what they needed or cut a piece to size.Capano said seeing the business close makes him wonder if he is making any difference as a councilor.”We get a Market Basket but we lose Lynn Lumber,” he said. “I guess if you look at it day to day you don’t see the improvement but if you look at chunks of time you see a lot of changes and I think there have been more for the positive than the negative ? this is just a bummer.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].