On a recent Monday morning, Dennis Watson flipped on the switch of his late 19th century Chandler-Price letterpress, housed in the back room of Burr Printing at 82 Central St. in downtown Bangor.
The machine — virtually unchanged in both look and process since Thomas W. Burr opened the original Burr Printing on Columbia Street in 1879, aside from an electric motor replacing a gas one — whirred to life with a loud hum and a series of mechanical clicks.
Watson began feeding long paper tickets into the machine. The motor picked up speed after a few seconds, eventually settling into a rapid clip. The machinery snaps each piece of paper into place, prints it with a sequential number, and then spits it back out with a metallic clank into a neat little pile.
Each piece of paper must be hand-fed into the machine by Watson. It’s a laborious, careful process, but it’s one that Watson wouldn’t do any other way.
“It’s craftsmanship,” said Watson, now 60, a lifelong Bangor resident who has worked for Burr Printing for the past 45 years. “There’s just something different about something made by hand.”
Though the vast majority of commercial printing is today done on digital machines and copiers, Watson does things the old-fashioned way — with a movable type letterpress, not too different from the ones that printed newspapers until the early 20th century.
Whether a customer has a unique cut of paper, or simply enjoys the feel of letterpress printing on the page — things only a press such as Watson’s can do — Burr Printing has a niche market in eastern Maine dominated. There are only a handful of other letterpresses in Maine, mostly printing cards, stationery and high-end, limited edition art prints. None with the nearly 140-year history that Burr Printing has.
Thomas W. Burr opened Burr Printing as the T.W. Burr Times Job Printing Company in 1879, originally on Columbia St., with equipment purchased from the Bangor Democrat, a controversial newspaper that folded that year when its owner died. Though Watson doesn’t have the exact year, another printer, James W. Barto, purchased the business from Burr in the first 20 years of the 20th century, moving offices to Franklin St. In 1941, Thomas Watson Sr., Dennis’ father, began working there. He later purchased the company in 1971.
Watson moved the business to Central St. in 1976, where it’s remained for the last more than 40 years.
For his part, Dennis Watson joined the family business in 1972 as the “printer’s devil” — the guy that cleaned things, fetched things and eventually trained on the presses.
“I’m still the janitor,” said Watson. “And the bookkeeper, and the repairman and typesetter. I’m the whole business. It’s just me in here.”
Thomas Watson ran the business until his death in 1997, even working the day before he was admitted to the hospital, Dennis said. After that, Dennis ran the show, and he still does, though his brother Tom comes in to greet customers and take orders when Dennis needs to run errands.
After all those decades, it’s still surprising how little the business has changed, and evidence of that long history is all over the shop. The paper cutter, a hulking iron machine that dates to at least the 1890s, has a braised mark on one corner from when it was damaged during the Great Bangor Fire in 1911. Carefully organized drawers line the walls, each full of tens of thousands of individual letters and spacers, in 35 different full font sets in multiple sizes, in both metal and wood — many of which are more than 100 years old.
To make a “form” — the name for a collection of letters that form a sentence or other phrase that is then used to print with — Watson has to put each letter into place, carefully aligning them so it’ll print straight.
Watson says he likes all the different aspects of the job, though it’s the unique orders that give him the most pleasure.
“I enjoy it all. I really do. I love an oddball job. I like paper that doesn’t have one straight edge on it. It’s got to be hit in the same spot each time. I like that,” he said. “I have customers that bring in jobs that have names and numbers printed on it already, and they tell me ‘We can’t lose one sheet on it. Every one has to be right, and we have a time schedule.’ I like a challenge like that.”
Letterpress is a process that dates back, in its most basic essence, to Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press in the 15th century. The invention of movable type printing is credited with helping to usher in the modern era in human history.
“There’s no computers when you’re doing typesetting here. There’s no spellcheck. You’ve got to be able to spell it right. You’ve got to know math and spelling in this business. If you don’t know that, you’re screwed,” said Watson. “My dad always said spelling and math was the most important thing to learn … and to do your own repairs.”
Watson repairs all of his machines himself, since there are no companies left that make machines or parts. If a particular element on one of his presses breaks, he’s got a machine shop in Brewer to call that can quickly fabricate a new element for him.
Watson admits that he does now own a laptop, but only begrudgingly turns it on when necessity calls. He’s generally not a fan of modern day electronics, though he also has a small flat screen TV set up in the print shop, so he can watch true crime shows while he works.
“I only turn [the laptop] on so my wife can show me pictures of my grandkids. That’s the only time I turn on a laptop,” said Watson, who has four children and stepchildren with his wife, Dee Dee, and 13 grandchildren. “I don’t like computers. They’re not good for you.”
Watson keeps his business dealings pretty close to the bone — he doesn’t want to get any bigger than he already is — 95 percent of the time he’s all on his own in the shop. He works from 5:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. And during those hours, he says he stays consistently busy, between wedding and other invitations, business cards and special jobs such as napkins or matchbooks.
“I don’t want everything. I like my little piece of the pie. I don’t want to get big. I like being able to talk to people and get them what they want. I don’t want to rush them out the door,” said Watson. “I’m pretty happy at the size I am right now.”
Despite the dominance of digital printing and other digitized services, Watson believes that there will always be a market for things that are done by hand, and by small businesses.
“I’ve seen a lot of things change in Bangor, and I think one thing that’s happening now is that small places are coming back. Look at what’s happening at the mall, and look at what’s happening downtown,” said Watson. “I think people want to shop at small places now. Online is putting the big stores out of business.”
For his business in particular, Watson believes that nothing can truly replace the look and feel of an authentic letterpress.
“People want that old style look. They want to feel it on the paper. The impression on the paper. They want to see that. They like the old school style,” said Watson.
Despite reaching the age of 60, he’s not eager to slow down. His goal is to exceed his father’s time in the business — 55 years — so retirement won’t come before Sept. 19, 2027, which will put him at 55 years and one day in the business. No one from Watson’s family wants to take over the business when he retires, however. As far as he knows, when he’s done, Burr Printing will be done too.
“I’ve had people ask me about apprenticing, but it’s hard to do because of the insurance … if someone came up to me with a nice offer for the business, I’d sell. But I’d keep working here,” said Watson. “I’d work another 10, 15 years and teach them how to do it. I don’t want to leave the business. I want to stay right where I am.”
