Charlie May, 76, left, and Vern Trampe, 81, have a look at an IBM Selectric in the workshop of Jones Typewriter in Maplewood on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. It will be one of their final repairs, as Trampe closed the shop at the end of 2023 after 59 years in business. Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
MAPLEWOOD — Though the store technically closed for business in December, Jones Typewriter Co. left its front door unlocked for customers on a recent January morning.
One man who stopped by had driven in from Bellevue, Illinois, to buy an electric typewriter. Another dropped his model off for repair. Mechanic Charlie May, 76, promised it would be fixed by the end of the week — mostly because the retailer and repair shop is trying to finally close, and the remaining inventory is being packed up.
“If there was another repair shop across the street, we could’ve quit 15 years ago,” May said. “We have been talking about retiring for two to three years but so many customers have been good to us. We just couldn’t close.”
Jones Typewriter mechanic Charlie May, 76, right, shares a laugh with customer David Baldree, left, and inventory buyer Shane Byrne, center, after Baldree dropped off a typewriter for repair at the closed Maplewood shop on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. May agreed to fix it anyway, realizing that Baldree’s father, a Belleville surgeon, had stitched up May’s face after a car accident in 1964.
Antique stores might sell the occasional machine, but May said Jones Typewriter is the only “big” repair business in Missouri and technicians are rare. He said he knows of a woman who sells on Etsy out of the Branson area and speculated that there may be a repair business in Jefferson City, but Jones Typewriter receives broken typewriters in the mail from as far as Connecticut and California.
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The shop is filled with all kinds of typewriters, both manual and electric. Stacked on top of one another and lined up like books sit Remingtons, Royals, IBM Selectrics and Underwoods. The machines are either repaired and sold or kept for parts.
After roughly six decades in business, owner Vern Trampe, 81, decided in October it was finally time to hang up his hat. Rent and property insurance costs were increasing for the building at 3530 Greenwood Boulevard.
A sea of typewriters, mostly used for parts, fills the basement of Jones Typewriter in Maplewood on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. Owner Vern Trampe and his employee Charlie May will spent the next couple weeks finishing repairs and moving out.
Fine artist and typewriter collector Louise Marler said she employs a repairman who visits her Cherokee Street art gallery to maintain her collection of typewriters on display, but she doesn’t know of a brick and mortar repair shop in St. Louis, other than Jones.
Marler said it’s her go-to place when people come to her for repairs.
“It is a technical skill. It’s kind of a lost art,” Marler said. “The things I can’t fix, we send them to Jones. They always did a good job, for sure.
“It’s a specialized thing,” she said. “You can’t just take it to someplace else.”
One of the items Vern Trampe will keep in his retirement is this Antares Parva typewriter signed and sent to him personally with a note by actor Tom Hanks, who is a big fan of typewritten letters.
Though revenue had been dropping off for Jones Typewriter Co. post-pandemic, Trampe said they still saw consistent business. He and May repaired about 60 machines a month, in addition to selling a handful.
Trampe doesn’t use the internet so the shop’s prices haven’t kept up with the competition, said Shane Byrne, who has been apprenticing at the shop. The shop has been charging $35 an hour when competitors are charging up to $100 an hour — with total costs sometimes reaching a few hundred dollars.
“We never charged enough,” Trampe said. “We missed the boat.”
Vern Trampe, 81, has sold much of his inventory to Shane Byrne, left. The two men opened an Underwood typewriting stand following the closure of Jones Typewriter in Maplewood on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. Byrne and his wife Amanda plan to open a workshop and typewriter museum in Rolla.
Lucas Dul, a 23-year-old self-taught typewriter service technician out of Chicago, said few typewriter repair businesses remain. The generation of technicians, who are typically older, is dying and university classes or certifications are no longer offered.
“There’s not a lot of them around. Many have closed down or transitioned to computer repairs,” Dul said of the profession. “Typewriters need regular maintenance. It’s more work than one person can tackle. It’s becoming overwhelming.”
The average cost of a repair job by Dul is over $350 total, he said.
Typewriter museum
Though Trampe and May are moving on, the store’s approximately 1,000 typewriters will be rehomed with Byrne and his wife, Amanda, in Rolla.
Vern Trampe, 81, watches as Amanda Byrne carries out boxes of inventory from Trampe’s closed Jones Typewriter in Maplewood on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. Byrne and her husband Shane have purchased much of the inventory and plan to open a workshop and typewriter museum in Rolla.
Byrne has plans for a retail and repair shop named Clickety Clack in Rolla, in addition to a typewriter museum where he will display machines from his personal collection of over 105 typewriters, plus some from Jones. The couple hopes to have the museum and business open in six months.
Already, the Byrnes have hosted a “type-in” event in Rolla, where they set up typewriters in a public place and invite people to use them.
Typewriters are seeing a kind of resurgence, thanks in part to Hollywood giant Tom Hanks. Between the star’s public affinity for the machines and his documentary, “California Typewriter,” people of all ages have been seeking out typewriters like never before. Byrne said people have been asking for Hanks-specific typewriters, which helps drive the market.
Byrne spent the last few weeks loading up his car with inventory he bought from the Maplewood shop and plans to have the place cleaned out by the end of January.
Vern Trampe, owner of the recently shuttered Jones Typewriter Co., talks about the growing popularity of typewriters among Millenials by holding "type-ins" in coffee shops and other public spaces. By Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
News of the store’s Dec. 29 closing traveled by word of mouth after Trampe made the decision around Thanksgiving. He called meeting Byrne — and the arrival of his rent notice — “the perfect storm,” as he and May were ready to retire years ago.
Since then, longtime customers have stopped in with baked goods and to say tearful goodbyes to the two mechanics who don’t yet have immediate plans for retirement.
“We kind of made an impression on a few people I guess,” Trampe said. “We’ve had some pretty good write-ups. I’ve never read one, so I don’t know. I don’t do internet.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the hourly charges at Jones Typewriter Co.
Vern Trampe, 81, owner of Jones Typewriter in Maplewood, gives Amanda Byrne a hug goodbye as she picked up a load of Trampe’s inventory on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. Byrne and her husband, Shane, bought most of the older typewriters and parts to open a shop in Rolla after Trampe closed his business at the end of 2023. “We wanted to learn,” said Byrne, who shadowed Trampe with her husband for the last two months. “There’s nowhere to fix this stuff.”
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