No. 11139 - Linotype Model 5

Owner Traditional Charm Antique Mall

Location Dolores CO, US

Status Outdoor Display

Year 1907

Located in front of the building that used to house the Dolores Star.

From George Chapman:

Seeing this was a great start for my morning. The machine has been sitting there for more than 40 years. It was placed by Larry Pleasant, who with his wife Marilyn owned and operated the Dolores Star from about 1960 to 1977. I might add that it was painted gold! The shop also did commercial printing and after the paper was sold was operated as the Pleasant Press. The paper was converted to offset at about the time of the sale and subsequently printed in nearby Cortez, Colorado. That’s just some background. Larry also dabbled in antiques and I don’t remember exactly what he called that portion of the business, something like Out West Antiques I think. When I purchased the Silverton Standard in 1975 it had been offset for three years but the shop included all the letterpress equipment that had been used for many, many years. We continued to use most of it for commercial work, including the ancient and well-worn Model 8 Linotype. There are other tales to be told about all this but right now we are interested in the Dolores machine. I received some basic instructions on the Linotype from a prior owner of the paper—just enough to get me into trouble. At some point, it had to have been no later than 1978, I managed to do something that caused one of the levers to break. I can’t remember exactly which lever but I know the machine was open at the time. What to do? Obviously I needed to find a replacement lever. After a string of phone calls I was lead to Larry Pleasant. He informed me that he had a machine sitting on the sidewalk in front of his shop and I was welcome to take the needed lever from it. So I did! With the help of a friend and Larry’s printer, Shorty, we removed the lever. I took it to Silverton and installed it on my Model 8 with no problem and soon the machine was as good as an old worn out machine could be. Whatever I did, I learned my lesson and never did major damage to a machine again. Over the next dozen or so years I acquired two more Linotypes, both of which were far superior to the old 8. Sometime in the late 1980s I scrapped it out, gold lever and all! I assume that the Dolores machine is the one from which I removed the lever. The gold paint has long since peeled off and Larry Pleasant eventually sold the business and moved to Libby, Montana, and Bonners Ferry, Idaho where he passed away three years ago. Thank you for posting this, it brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad!

This Linotype has also been captured as a 3D model.

Photos