Ever Ready Press turned 95 years old this week.
ANSONIA – For nearly a century, the Halpin family has been keeping the presses hot.
On Monday, (March 4) father-and-son duo Frank and Andrew Halpin celebrated Ever Ready Press’s 95th anniversary in Ansonia. Frank, who has owned Ever Ready since his father retired in 1974, is now looking to do the same in a few months – and Andrew is primed to carry on the family tradition.
Four days a week, Frank is in the office before the sun rises, a schedule he’s maintained for decades. Andrew is in the shop most days, too – and, on his off days, he works twelve-hour shifts as a paramedic in Shelton.
The inside of the shop is a testament to both its’ owners dedication and the ways the printing industry has changed since it opened. Frank, showing this reporter around the shop last week, pointed to an old letterpress, filled with drawers of metal letters that hadn’t been touched in some time.
“That was before my time, really. My uncle and father did that,” Frank said.
He gestured to a row of four presses that take up the center of the building: offset printers, which Ever Ready has been using since they became popular in the 1970s.
“What we do now is we just set up what we want on the computer, and we make a negative and then we make a plate,” he said. “And it’s all done almost automatically.”
The presses are used for everything from advertisements, to business cards, to yard signs, to tax forms. Frank is particularly fond of the work that Ever Ready does for local schools.
“At the end of the year, we enjoy doing graduation programs, because you see the kids that graduate,” he said. “It’s nice to, as you’re getting the jobs done, see where the children are going nowadays.”
Back when Frank took over, there were more presses in town – and a wider range of orders coming in. But, even after the Valley’s print newspapers shut off the lights, and even after online forms began replacing reams upon reams of paperwork, Ever Ready has continued to not just survive, but thrive.
Frank credits family tradition and a spirited work ethic with the press’s continued success in a new century.
“It goes to show that there are good families, good people, and if you’re hard-working and everything else, there’s a way you can carry on a tradition.”
Hanging on a wall near the front desk is a framed photo of Frank with then-president George H.W. Bush – a reminder of his own years working as head of Ansonia Rescue and Medical Service, all while keeping the presses alive. Bush was holding a re-election campaign rally in Ansonia, and Frank was assigned to travel with him. Frank’s smiling in the photo, his ARMS badge glimmering in the sun.
Three Generations, Two Storefronts, And One Business
Frank’s father, George Halpin, established Ever Ready Press in 1929. After the stock market crash that year, George pooled money with his father to purchase a struggling press on Main Street. But keeping the press alive wouldn’t be easy.
The Depression nearly shuttered the business before it got off the ground, and after that came the Second World War. George was drafted as an army engineer, and Ever Ready closed for three years while he was off in England, France, and Germany.
After the press’s doors reopened, Ansonia was hit by a historic flood in 1955 that washed out many downtown businesses – Ever Ready among them. George moved the business to 78 Clifton St., where it remains to this day.
By the time Frank was eighteen, George was ready to retire. But Frank wasn’t sure he was ready to take over.
“I wanted to go to college, pick up a few courses in it,” Frank said. “And he says, ‘You don’t need to leave. I’ll teach you everything.’”
George Halpin
If Frank’s fifty years of successful ownership are something to go by, then George’s promise seems to have rung true. But the next generation may be even better equipped to keep the presses hot – Andrew got a degree in business administration from the University of New Haven in 2009. He says that degree has been useful in the shop.
“I was able to bring a lot of that knowledge to the business,” Andrew said. “I design and manage our website – I built that from nothing.”
Andrew has three children of his own, but it’s too soon to say if any of them will take up after their father. His oldest son is sixteen and has been working with cars. His youngest son, at seven, reminds him of himself.
“He comes in here and tinkers around with things like I used to, but we’ll see how he ends up when he gets a little older,” Andrew said.
Wherever Ever Ready may be in fifty more years, it looks to be in safe hands for the foreseeable future. Frank is looking forward to spending more time vacationing and seeing family once he retires in June, and he says Andrew has proven himself to be more than ready to take over.
“I have confidence in my son that, I mean, if I decide to leave cold turkey, I have no problem with the business being in capable hands and continuing for another 45 years,” Frank said.
