Restoration about to begin - East Texas

[Jack]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to printing and typesetting, but I've been pulled into a project that I think many of you will appreciate. I'm helping start a nonprofit organization in Huntsville, Texas to preserve the equipment from a print shop originally established in 1918. The shop includes:

A Cranston cylinder press
Two platen presses (one open‑wavy‑wheel Chandler & Price, one Kluge with solid wheel)
An American Model 6 Linotype
Various other tools and equipment

These machines have been sitting unused for about 50 years. Next weekend we will be transporting the large equipment from Mount Enterprise, TX to our space on the Huntsville, TX square, where we plan to display and eventually restore them.

We do not plan to cast hot metal, but we would like to get the Linotype running for cold demonstrations.

Our goal is to preserve the history, teach the public, and eventually operate the presses for community projects.

We are a brand‑new nonprofit with no funding yet, so any help would be strictly a labor of love. If anyone in Texas — especially East Texas, Houston, or the Huntsville/Conroe area — would like to be part of the restoration process, we would be grateful for your knowledge and hands‑on experience.

If you're nearby and want to help bring these machines back to life, please reach out. We'd love to connect.

[Dave Hughes]

Exciting stuff, Jack.

I shall be including your post in the next Email Newsletter, so hopefully some volunteers to help the project.