Movable Press? : Caltrans Ousts Printing Museum, but Logistics Make Leaving Difficult

As the schoolchildren entered the International Printing Museum here Tuesday, they were instantly transported back in time, to an age well before computers or even typewriters.

They gathered around a wooden press, a replica of the one Benjamin Franklin used, still churning out pages as if it were brand new.

“That’s cool,” said one student, holding a freshly printed page in his hands.

In fact, that is a common response when visitors come to the museum.

“We make history come alive, that’s what we do,” said Mark Barbour, director of the 9-year-old museum, home to the nation’s largest collection of printing machinery.

Housed in a modest-looking building, the museum is home to 25,000 antique, working printing machines--dinosaurs in the current age of microchips and laser printers. The machines range from the first movable press, to Linotype machines used until two decades ago by newspapers, to two 1824 presses used to print English railroad timetables.

Computer-savvy student visitors--some of whom consider the typewriter an antique--are shown how integral the printing press has been to the recording of and the public’s knowledge of history.

But the shrine to the old information highway is falling prey to the Santa Ana Freeway.

Located on a tiny side street next to the freeway in Buena Park, the museum stands in the path of the freeway expansion project. Museum operators are still looking for a new site and will probably have to shut down for six months to a year.

Initially, the property’s owner and officials from the California Department of Transportation locked horns on a sales price for the property.

“They come in and try to low-ball everybody,” Barbour said. “They give you a low price and won’t negotiate with you until the case is on the steps of the courthouse.”

Barbour said that the museum property owner reached an agreement with Caltrans last week, after two years of bitter debate. The owner paid $3.2 million for the 50,000-square-foot building, which did not include the amount spent on renovations, Barbour said. The owner could not be reached for comment.

Caltrans officials confirmed that an agreement has been reached and that the deal is in escrow. They would not comment on the final price.

Officials said that only part of the land will be used for the freeway expansion and that the unused portion will be auctioned off.

The museum probably has until May to vacate the building, leaving little time to find a relocation site.

“We’ve been looking for a place for the past two years, but the funds for the next property are tied up with this property. You just can’t run into another site,” Barbour said. It is no small feat, he said, to move thousands of precious machines that weigh hundreds of tons. “It takes at least six to nine months to develop the new site.”

As a result, the museum may have to close its doors for up to a year while the machinery is moved to storage and a new site is prepared.

“We don’t know if they are going to compensate us for being shut down,” Barbour said. “Caltrans has the upper hand.”

Located a mile from Knott’s Berry Farm, the museum can’t claim to be a big tourist attraction, but it draws an average of 100 students on field trips daily.

“It’s beautiful the way everything is set up,” said Lonnie Knapp, a teacher at Bubbling Wells Elementary School in Desert Hot Springs, who took 40 of his students to the museum on Tuesday. “That would be terrible if this place were to be shut down.”

Machines such as the first self-inking press and early versions of the movable type press are on display, and there are several educational tours.

The constitutional tour makes students part of the show by dividing them into delegations representing the original 13 colonies. The students debate issues such as the power between state and federal governments, proportional and equal representation and slavery. Guided by an actor portraying Benjamin Franklin, the students reach a compromise and sign a facsimile copy of the Constitution.

On another tour, students are taken to six different stops in history and are read books from different time periods. A stop to a Victorian parlor might bring a passage from Sherlock Holmes, while a visit to Mark Twain’s office will include a sample of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

“The books themselves are time machines,” said Scott Ratner, who has been a tour guide at the museum for 2 1/2 years.

Most of the machinery on display is from the private collection of Ernest A. Lindner, who as a boy, worked for his father and uncle in their business of rebuilding and selling used typesetting equipment. Lindner, who lives in Glendale, continues to add to his collection by scouring junk shops, auctions and ghost towns for more machines.

“Our collection is double what they have at the Smithsonian and is Orange County’s only technological museum,” Barbour said. “This museum is something unique in the entire world.”