On a cool July evening, Trevor Brumfield works on some old typewriters in his store in an old industrial building on Linden Avenue.
TB Writers Plus is one of 14 shops repairing and selling typewriters in Ohio – and the only one in Dayton.
This unlikely machine from the past is inspiring a new generation to slow down. The owners told WYSO they are seeing an increase in demand, especially from young people looking for an offline hobby.
“I think just the older style of things is getting cool,” said Trevor Brumfield, the owner of the store. “For example, vinyl's coming back, and there's the retro design of a lot of stuff like fridges and microwaves.”
Brumfield works as an auto mechanic. He became interested in typewriters in 2021 when he repaired an old machine. Two years later, Brumfield and his wife Becca opened TB Writers Plus, where they fix and sell cameras and typewriters.
Along dusty shelves are some of the famous brands including American Remingtons, Swiss Hermes and Italian Olivettis. A restored machine costs between $150 and $400.
For Mitchell Farley, one of Brumfield's customers, the typewriter is both a therapeutic and creative outlet. He picked up one at a garage sale in 2017 and hasn't looked back.
“I brought it home, and I quickly realized how much fun they are to use,” Farley said. He now uses his Hermes 3000 to journal and write stories.
Farley is one of the thousands of people picking up typewriters as a hobby. Various typewriting groups have popped up online, with an antique collectors Facebook group garnering close to 40,000 members.
Richard Polt, a philosopher professor at Xavier University and typewriter collector, said hobbyists like Farley are part of the small but growing segment of millennials in the U.S. and internationally who are becoming interested in typewriters for various reasons, such as privacy.
“Anything that you can do where it's just you and your activity and maybe a machine like a typewriter that is just meant to do that and isn't connected to anything, anything like that is, is helpful,” Polt said.
He also thinks using the typewriter also allows people to slow down their thought process, as opposed to emerging technologies like ChatGPT.
“The computers just have no process, because they essentially have no time. They just spit out a result,” Polt said. “If we get obsessed with the result instead of the process, then we forget our humanity, and typewriters can help us remember that process”.
Back at the store, Brumfield puts together a machine for a customer who uses it to write cheques. Typewriters still have a place at law firms and government offices that use them to fill out forms, so even though business can be slow at times, Brumfield said the demand is always there.
His favorite part of the work is repairing old machines that are often over 100 years old.
“I like to imagine what this thing has gone through,” he said as he tinkered on a Remington typewriter from the 1800s. “They’re all unique and interesting in their own way.”
