What an ending to Month of Printmaking!

Photo by board member Bryan Dahlberg

Letterpress Depot printers Bryan Dahlberg, Marc Silberman and Tom Parson and volunteer Tim Vermeulian joined over 70 other makers at this year’s Small Press Fest. Note the mini-press in a box thatBryan used to print Jabberwocky on - he made that press himself!

Thanks to Bryan and Dave Laskowski III for capturing the scene. And to all who came to print with us! For more Depot intel, contact us at info@letterpressdepot.com or call/text 720-480-5358. Follow us on Facebook & Instagram (@letterpressdepot) and on X (@letpressdepot). See you somewhere!

"Print Jam" March 16---and a whole lot of other printing going on!

Four different presses, historic prints, plastic building blocks and even some Jabberwocky - all will be part of the Letterpress Depot’s demonstration and hands-on events at the Arvada Center March 16, 11-4. We promise you will see presses and printing you’ve probably never seen before! Mo’Print, the Month of Printmaking, has been a busy time for us. But as always, we’ve also made time for the schools. At Cherry Creek High School, we tried out LEGO(tm) printing, inspired by Depot board member Dave Laskowski II. (You’ll have a chance to do this with Dave at “Print Jam.”)

We also printed with the kids at Cherrelyn Elementary, and loaned press and type to Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice for their “Wanted” project.

Print Jam demonstration is in the Arvada Center’s Main Gallery, with hands-on fun in their History Museum. Other March events include the Spring Market, March 23 at Belleview Park, and the Small Press Fest, March 30 at Globeville Center. We look forward! If you need more details, info@letterpressdepot.com.

Getting inky at book fair

Great meeting people and printing with them at the recent Rocky Mountain Book & Paper Fair at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Three presses kept busy by board members Tom Parson, Bryan Dahlberg, Ian Van Mater, Marc Silberman and Dave Laskowski II.

Busy May (but wait, how is it almost over?)

An unwelcome surprise this year was the discovery that the Depot’s main structural beam and other supports had rotted. But this month, temporary vertical supports to hold up the roof were erected, the old vertical and horizontal beams replaced and the temporary ones removed. All part of the rehabilitation funded by the State Historical Fund and donors like you.

We also did more printing with elementary school kids - at Bishop, Cherrelyn and, below, at Charles Hay World School.

Board members Kirk Benson and Dave Laskowski II. Kirk also is an arts specialist in Englewood schools.

Then it was time for the Rocky Mountain Stamp Show at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. Some samples of what we printed: Board member Marc Silberman designed the vegetable laden-tribute to Colorado agriculture for the event and Executive Director Tom Parson had fun printing various cuts.

Also some great railroad finds at the next door ephemera show!

Volunteers always welcome! Englewooddepot@gmail.com or call 720-480-5358.

#meetapressMonday Come see us in person Saturday 3.26

Open Studio Tour Saturday 10-4 as part of Mo’Print, the Month of print. Come see our presses, with many in action!

Here are just some of the presses you will see - more will be shared other days this week!

Gordon Franklin press - note the brass side arms!

Gordon Franklin platen, new style 10x15  ~1871

The Gordon Franklin, called “the single most famous and influential jobbing press of the nineteenth century” was invented by George Phineas Gordon, who is celebrated as having developed the basic design of the most popular printing press ever. He named this model the  Franklin because Gordon, a spiritualist, said that Ben Franklin had described it to him in a dream. Our model is a Gordon’s brass side-arm “new style”, that started to be manufactured in 1871 when the patent on the older version was expiring.

Jones Gordon  Press ~1890

Manufactured by John M. Jones. Jones, who first built presses for George Phineas Gordon, started building them on his own when Gordon’s patents expired.

C&P 10x15 at the start of a print run

by Chandler & Price -All these built on the model designed by George Phineas Gordon

7x11, old style   1898-910x15 old style  1902

8x12 new style ~1930

Bryan Dahlberg, Doug Sorenson and Tom Parson huddle around the Colt’s Armory Press

Colts Armory platen (on loan from Doug Sorenson) ~1887

The name given after 1887 to Merrit Gally’s Universal press, which he’d introduced in 1869. The former minister held more than 500 patents. John Thomson, who hated Gally from the first time he heard him preach as a child, ended up taking over manufacture of the press in a high noon standoff worthy of the Colt’s name. For more details of this history see https://bit.ly/3D4BXIy

Old Reliable platen press 8x12    1888

The Old Reliable was manufactured for just one year  by H.H. Thorpe (Cleveland Type Foundry). James Thorpe held many other platen press patents, which he later sold to Chandler and Price.  Used by hobby printer Jim Grisenti, it was donated to the Depot by Jim Fitzgerald in memory of printer Wimpy Miller.

Schniedewend & Lee Old Style platen  Manufactured between 1884-93

This press also was built on the foundations laid by George Phineas Gordon. The Schniedewend company also built the Reliance A iron hand press on our east wall.

Damon-Peets platen, new style 9x12 (on loan from Doug Sorenson) ~1893

Calling itself the “latest improved Gordon,”whose “style supersedes all other presses” and which can print 2,000 sheets an hour, it was made by Damon & Peets of New York.

Next up: the Depot’s smaller presses…stay tuned! Come see them all March 26, Open Studio 10-4

ZINES OF THE PAST at SMALL PRESS FES

Come to the Denver Small Press Fest on Saturday, March 12 o visit with the Letterpress Depot and go away with zines (they were called journals then) from the 1950s to 1990s. Free handouts as long as they last. It’s eye-opening to realize how many of the same concerns and delights writers had back then - and also how much has changed. Also eye opening to see all this letterpress printing, done so frequently and so well.

Also on display —and these are for sale - posters designed by printers from around the world for the Depot. And much more. Something for every vintage.

STOP BY 11-5PM AND SAY HI TO TOM, IAN OR DAVID

A new old press, at home at the Depot

One of the Letterpress Depot’s most recent acquisitions – a Jones Gordon press, generously donated (along with other goodies) by Stacey Steers, David Brunel and Nena Restrepo-Gil of Boulder. THANK YOU!

After cleaning and oiling the press, Tom Parson got it rolling

A label on it says it was from “Chicago Newspaper Union. ” The donors got it a few decades ago from the weekly Dongola, Illinois, Tri-County Record, Its rollers were still wrapped in a six page issue dated June 15, 2000, which has an ad for “Does-the-Job Printing.”  A functional and historic addition to our printing museum collection! 

The press was manufactured between 1890-1903 in Palmyra, New York by John M. Jones. Jones made presses for George Phineas Gordon, who is celebrated as having developed the basic design of the most common printing press ever, the Gordon Letterpress. As Gordon’s patents expired, others such as Jones produced their own versions of his innovative machines.

The press has a treadle and several creative and practical additions to the original Gordon platen press. It has an easier new way to remove the chase, roller lifters so when you’re inking the press the ink doesn’t get on the form, and hand dial that adjusts the pressure—even while in the midst of printing - so you don’t have to open the packing to make small adjustments to improve the impression. And much more. The press is missing the sophisticated upper disk ink roller system noted in the ad, but has a detached small New Century inker.

Interestingly, Jones also invented one of the first typewriters or, as he called it, “Domestic Printing Machines”. His was only the third to reach manufacture—but the factory burned down after 130 had been fully or partially assembled.

Year End News...Plus a matching donation to start 2020!

A year-end pledge of $2,000 is helping us kick off a continuing campaign for construction in 2020. Give through this website or ColoradoGives.org/letterpressdepot.

The Depot was featured three times on Channel 7 news, as part of its promotion of Colorado Gives Day.

We had a very productive December. We engaged with our old and new supporters through Colorado Gives Day, through two funding page campaigns on Facebook, and directly by mail and our website. 

THANK YOU!

We met our initial goal to raise our share needed for a grant awarded by the Colorado State Historical Fund for construction documents (architectural and engineering drawings) for the depot. $5,860.33 donated by sixty-seven members of our community (plus a Colorado Gives incentive donation from Community First Foundation) will carry us into the new year. Once we get the architectural documents finished, then it will be the moment for heat! lights! plumbing! and rehabilitation of the interior. A big moment indeed.

Happy New Year.

Come celebrate 2020 with your suggestions, talents, volunteer efforts, donations.

Recurring monthly or annual donations can be scheduled any time at ColoradoGives.org. One-time contributions are also welcome there or on our website or by direct mail to the Letterpress Depot, PO Box 798, Englewood CO 80151. We are a 501 (c)3 nonprofit community resource.

Channel 7 at the Depot!

For the first time, Letterpress Depot is part of Colorado Gives Day. That brought Channel 7/KMGH to the Depot to cover us as part of their story on the annual fundraising event. Special Programs Producer Kevin Krug interviewed Tom Parson and got to see some of the presses in action. It may air on December 3, which is Giving Tuesday, as a reminder to viewers that Colorado Gives is upcoming on December 10. Of course, you don’t have to wait until December 10, or even December 3, to give to the Depot! You can pre-schedule a donation for the Depot at ColoradoGives or give through this website on our Marketplace page.

Valentines and anti-Valentines from teen workshop

Steady stream of teens kept board members Alex Jimenez and Tom Parson busy at the presses today at MCA Denver.  

Could look at this woodtype all day

What a joy to see - glorious type made from pantograph-cut hand-finished hard maple. A visit to Virgin Wood Type Manufacturing Company in Rochester, NY was one highlight of the ATF conference our Executive Director Tom Parson went to this summer.   Co-founder Geri McCormick and Matt Rieck and Jim Grieshabe displayed their equipment and type including their newest chromatic type. 

Fun with families in Sheridan

Depot executive director Tom Parson and board member Marc Silberman worked the roller proof press and the Curtis and Mitchell Columbian platen press for those attending Sheridan Celebrates on September 24, 2016.

Sheridan comes to Englewood (again)

In 1994, the Depot was moved from Sheridan to its current location. And this past Saturday, Sheridan came to the Depot for a VIP event to honor those who worked so hard on Sheridan Celebrates. Depot executive director Tom Parson printed for the crowd, along with board members Kim Morski, Jason Wedekind and Patti Parson. Organizer Jean Ray was there, along with Sheridan Mayor Dallas Hall, City Council members Tara Beiter-Fluhr and Sally Daigle and other community supporters. They all got to hear Sheridan idol Michael Cox sing. He will be singing again (and Tom printing again) at Sheridan Celebrates, September 24. (See http://www.letterpressdepot.com/events/.)

Only one thing was missing

9800 feet on a cool day with the smell of sage pungent in the air. This past weekend, board members Tom Parson, Marc Silberman and Patti Parson were at Como Roundhouse, the last remaining stone narrow gauge roundhouse in Colorado, to print on a 12x15 C&P Gordon Old Style press and talk Depot talk.  We bonded over printing and railroads and vintage equipment with hundreds of people from the mountain communities, from Denver, from Wisconsin and Minnesota. And then there were two young women who had biked from Banff, and stopped on their way to the Mexico border!  Besides the C&P, there was a non-working Miehle Pony press used to print the Fairplay Flume. One last page still set up on a chase -  an announcement about burro races, with the band Zephy and appearances by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. What a frozen moment in time!

Oh  and the thing that was missing? A way to power the C&P.  No motor…that was ok. But no treadle either. All depended on an inexhaustible left arm on the flywheel, which Tom supplied. 

Skyline at the Depot

Join us tomorrow morning at the depot for a visit with Sky Shipley of Skyline Type Foundry, 10 to noon, Thursday, June 29, 2016.

Returning from the Amalgamated Printers Association's annual Wayzgoose this week in St Louis, on his way back to the foundry in Prescott, Arizona, Sky has a truckload of beautiful newly cast printing type available!

His full catalog of type, ornaments, borders & initials is online at https://skylinetype.com.

Skyline offers affordable fonts of the best metal printing type being cast today, including classic and modern designs and numerous extraordinary and rare 19th century typefaces. Questions and discussion welcome!

Englewood Letterpress Depot is located on the corner of West Dartmouth and South Galapago in Englewood, Colorado, just off Santa Fe Drive.

Rehabilitation of the historic depot as a Living Museum of Letterpress Printing, Typography, Design, Poetry & Art, and other projects of Englewood Depot, Inc, may be followed on our website www.letterpressdepot.com and on social media. 
For further info: 720.480.5358. 

First MeetUp

It was great to see all those who came to our meetup, to hear new connections form over letterpress and design conversations, and to discover Our Mutual Friend Brewery   Two hours became four hours and still the talk went on.  We will definitely do this again!

**Three** days until our Meet Up

Getting to know us...

The Depot welcomes a host of new faces, experiences, and officers to our board. All of those involved are focused on community, art, design, history or printing.

Talking, planning, eating & more planning

Peter Bergman, an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at MSU Denver, who was been with the Depot project since the start, is our new president. Jason Wedekind, a stalwart board member and principal of Genghis Kern Design and Letterpress has taken on the role of Vice President. Brad Hammond, a Certified fraud examiner at CBIZ HMH, LLC, is our new treasurer. Other new board members include; Alexandra Jimenez, program director at the Platte Forum; Kim Morski, printmaker and artist book maker; Mike Ruberto, a Professor in the Multimedia Graphic Design department at Front Range Community College; Marc Silberman, a printer with strong philatelic bent; and Ian Van Mater, a MAC expert at Apple.

Staying with us are Alicita Rodriguez, Wilson Thomas, executive director Tom Parson and secretary Patti Parson.

We are forever grateful to those board members who are leaving – Lonnie Smith, David Ashley, Karen Jones and Jimi Bernath – for all the support they have provided and continue to do so.    

Inking it up at a student workshop

Students from Front Range Community College got to learn about letterpress while designing their own business cards.  Depotians and master printers Tom Parson and Peter Bergman lent a hand in the Metro State University of Denver print shop, as did their teacher Mike Ruberto, who also is on the Depot board.  Spreading the word about letterpress and getting ink on everyone's hands is in the DNA of the Letterpress Depot - so we look forward to leading more workshops.  Email us for details: englewooddepot@gmail.com.