In a restored storefront at the foot of Mesa Verde, the steady clank of an antique letterpress echoes off pressed-metal ceilings. The scent of oil and ink drifts through the air as artists roll paper across a massive drum built more than a century ago. Visitors step in from Grand Avenue to watch the old machine thunder back to life.

The Mancos Common Press, a nonprofit arts hub, embodies the town’s reinvention – shifting from ranching and timber roots to a creative district where the antique Cranston press now drives art, education and community life.

Mancos, a town of about 1,200 in southwestern Colorado, grew up on ranching, farming and timber. Today the press serves as a bridge between that past and a new identity as a center for creativity and community. That dual identity makes the preservation of its historic press even more meaningful.

It’s a remarkable second act for a building that once seemed destined for the scrap heap. The Mancos Times began publishing in 1893 and, after becoming the Times-Tribune, moved in 1910 into a fireproof concrete structure on Grand Avenue. Inside, a J.H. Cranston & Co. press printed local news until the paper merged with the Cortez Journal in the 1970s. The presses went silent, the windows were boarded and the building sat untouched for decades.

That changed in 2013 when faculty and students from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design and its Center for Architectural Conservation pried open the boards and discovered a time capsule: the intact Cranston press, trays of type, typesetting benches, even ink still clinging to rollers. Stacks of bound newspapers preserved a century of local history. Ballantine Communications, the building’s owner, donated it all to a new nonprofit, and with help from the Colorado State Historical Fund, preservationists began the long process of repair.

The restoration was painstaking. Specialists cataloged every ceiling tile before removing them to install new HVAC, then replicated missing pieces in Penn’s fabrication lab. Workers uncovered original paint schemes – sky-blue walls, gray woodwork and a yellow frieze – and restored them based on historic documentation. A rear wall altered over the years was rebuilt from a 1911 photograph, and the ornate metal façade was carefully preserved. By 2019, the Cranston press was once again operational.

Shop manager Jody Chapel, who moved from Denver with her husband that year, said she was surprised to find such robust printmaking facilities in a small town. Classes began with simple card-making sessions and grew into full training programs, and today about 25 artists are active members.

One of the earliest was Teri McKay, who moved to Mancos in 2016. A self-described “maker,” McKay prints cards with cheeky wordplay and creates colorful linocuts. She said the variety of old fonts was what first drew her in. The press, she added, has helped connect different parts of the community and shown that both history and creativity are valued in Mancos.

The new Mancos Commons broadened that reach. Its sustainable design includes rooftop solar and water-saving landscaping, and upstairs apartments rent below the town’s rising market rates. Margaret Hunt, former executive director of Colorado Creative Industries, noted that those apartments could house teachers or others who might not otherwise be able to afford property in town.

Residency programs now bring artists for 10-day stays that include lodging, supplies and full studio access. Fruita-based printmaker and Colorado Mesa University instructor Devan Penniman was the 2024 artist-in-residence. She spent her days inking rollers and printing postcards of endangered species – the Mexican spotted owl, black-footed ferret and Mancos milkvetch.

Penniman described the work as grounding and said the smell of a long-lived print shop added to the experience. She also tells her students that letterpress remains relevant, even in an age when artificial intelligence and digital tools dominate.

For Penniman, the connection reaches back to Gutenberg’s invention nearly six centuries ago. “The letterpress changed everything,” she said. She said it was a rare chance to work with technology that had once transformed the world. She left Mancos with renewed appreciation for the community, calling it a rejuvenating experience.

Once a boarded-up relic, the Cranston press and its companion Commons now embody both preservation and reinvention – an old machine put to new use, a restored building alive with classes and residencies, and a community demonstrating how heritage and creativity can thrive together.

 

Visitors can see the press in action, join a workshop, or view exhibitions in the Mancos Commons. Artist memberships and the annual residency are available at mancoscommonpress.org or at the Grand Avenue storefront.