Our story
In 2019, after 40 years in corporate finance, Shelley French retired and decided to write a book with a typewriter.
She bought one at an antique store in Port Townsend, got it home and it didn’t work.
An online search found Paul Lundy and the Bremerton Office Machine Company, so she took it to him for service and repair. When she got there, she instantly fell in love with all the typewriters in his shop.
“The smell in his shop reminded me of times with my Dad and brothers. I used to hang out with them in the garage when I was little and learned all about tools and mechanical things. My father was a mechanical engineer and inventor. But back in those days, girls became secretaries or nurses, not engineers.”
Shelley bought her second typewriter within six months and started teaching herself about the different makes and models and how to do simple repairs. Soon, she was reading books, watching YouTube repair videos, and collecting more typewriters. She realized she had a natural ability for fixing them. The pandemic was the perfect time to become immersed in typewriters and she began thinking about a shop.
In the spring of 2022, Shelley saw a Facebook post by a California woman who had seventy typewriters she wanted to sell as a lot. She had just purchased a piece of property high in the mountains between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, and with it came the typewriters.
The previous owner was Cameron Kopf, a French horn player in the Sacramento Symphony. Cameron and his husband often hosted writers and musicians at their retreat in hills outside Nevada City, California. Cameron was a collector and lover of typewriters.
Sadly, he passed away and his collection was available for sale. In three days, Shelley and her husband drove their motorhome to Nevada City, packed up all but one typewriter, and drove back to Port Townsend. With the addition of Cameron’s collection, Shelley now had over 150 typewriters and was ready to open a shop.
“Some of Cameron’s typewriters needed repair that was beyond my skill level, so I went back to Paul for help. It was at this visit that I learned Paul offered a 12-week apprenticeship. My apprenticeship began in September 2022 has increased my confidence and greatly expanded my skill set.”
In the summer of 2022, Shelley, along with Richard Sloane of The Typewriter Train (more about him in the “Friends” section), hosted a Type-In at the PT farmers’ market. There, she met Griffin Stoss, a fellow typewriter enthusiast who jumped at the chance to work at the shop.
Type Townsend will open soon in downtown Port Townsend, and we look forward to seeing you there!
Inside Shelley’s She Shed, where her typewriters were stored and serviced
Our friends
Bremerton Office Machine Company
Paul Lundy and his wife Lisa at Bremerton Office Machine Company are dedicated to the craft of servicing these beautiful machines and getting them back to working order. They trained Shelley through an apprenticeship program, and Griffin will be learning the trade from them as well.
From their website:
“Bob Montgomery, passed away September 10, 2018 at 96, had been repairing typewriters for decades. Paul Lundy purchased the business and may be the last left in the area with a business devoted only to these machines. Montgomery was 7 or 8 when he began going to his dad’s shop in downtown Seattle, changing ribbons, learning to repair the machines. That’s 85-some years of typewriters. Paul is the latest convert to typo-mania and is dedicated to the craft.”
Bob Montgomery and Paul Lundy at Bremerton Office Machine Company. Photo by Bettina Hansen of the Seattle Times.
The Typewriter Train
Richard Sloane has been working as a caregiver in the area since 1997. In 2019, he began fixing manual typewriters as a hobby and soon ran out of space in his tiny home to keep them.
Thus began The Typewriter Train: a program to connect kids of all ages with these wonderful machines.
Since its beginning, the Train has found homes for over 80 typewriters. One now resides at the Jefferson County Library in their “Unusual Items” section.
Richard has also started two typewriter letter writing groups for local youth and elders.
Contact Richard at thetypewritertrain@gmail.com.
Richard and one of his typewriters
A typewriter train