Considered a modern steam-powered marvel in the late 1800s, a rare Cranston Press is currently collecting dust and cobwebs in downtown Mancos.
More than a dozen people stopped by the former Mancos Times-Tribune building to get a closer look at the historic press during Mancos Studio Tours this weekend. A small group is raising funds to help bring the press roaring back to life.
"It's a letter press," Betsy Harrison explained to interested visitors on Saturday. "You have to set the individual letters in what's called furniture, or spacers."
"The letters are all backwards?" a woman asked.
"Yes, you have to set the type backwards," replied Harrison, commenting on a unique skill required of bygone typesetters.
Launched in 2014, the Mancos Common Press is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring, revitalizing and reusing the ancient press. Harrison, a board member with the organization, said an online crowd-funding campaign aims to raise $15,000 by July 3. As of Monday, some 30 people had pledged nearly $2,500.
"We have some people waiting in the wings to come in at the last minute," said Harrison. "But we would love more support."
Harrison said proceeds from the Kickstarter campaign would be used as matching funds if awarded a grant from the Colorado Historical Fund in August. The funding would be utilized to renovate both the press and former newspaper building with hopes to establish a community arts center, complete with an artist in-residence program and an educational graphic arts center. The entire project could cost up to $250,000.
"This would be a great opportunity for students living in today's digital world," Harrison said.
In addition to the Cranston printing press, 19th century typesetter's equipment, boxes of metal type, image blocks featuring cartoons, advertisements, maps and photographs and an archival newspapers dating to 1910 were all found inside the building.
"This is amazing," a man said while touring the site on Saturday.
Frank Matero, a part-time resident of Webber Canyon and University of Pennsylvania professor of architecture, helped to launch the preservation efforts. He and a team of graduate students and staff from the university helped to assess and restart the press in 2014.
"We had to check and see if the press was even operational," said Harrison. "Now we know the press works."
Board member Richard Ballantine, whose family owns the Mancos Times, Cortez Journal, Dolores Star and Durango Herald, has transferred ownership of the 100-plus-year-old building to the nonprofit.
"I think it is quite appropriate for a former newspaper building to be used in a graphic-arts way," Ballantine said. "Art has always been a form of communication, and this is an extension of the Times."
Only a handful of similar Cranston Presses are believed to exist, and most of those are on display in various museums.
The Mancos Times-Tribune was the town's first newspaper, founded in 1893, and in 1910 moved to its current location on Grand Avenue. The press, constructed in Connecticut, was last used in 1968.
"I would think they shipped it out here in parts on a train," Harrison speculated. "It remains a mystery."
