Did you know that Boyd Hill Nature Preserve has a Print Shop? Neither did Print St. Pete’s Kaitlin Crockett, who only recently learned of the cabin from a friend working in the City of St. Petersburg’s Parks and Recreation Department.
The shop is part of the preserve’s Pioneer Settlement, a living history museum established by the Friends of Boyd Hill in the late-1980s; the settlement also includes a blacksmith shop, cane syrup shed, carpentry shop, saw mill, and two of the oldest buildings in St. Pete—the Brantley Building, built in 1888, and the Endicott House, built in 1898.
Local history buff and St. Petersburg Historical Museum volunteer Fritz Wilder built the print shop in 2001 with his father, Fred Wilder (and some help from the city), to house his modest collection of vintage printing presses. Fritz’s most famous presses came from St. Pete’s historic Soreno Hotel.
“A few months before the historic Soreno Hotel was imploded in 1992, Fritz Wilder accompanied a museum team photographing the dilapidated interior,” writes St. Petersburg Times’ Phindile Xaba. “Lying amid the debris were two vintage printing presses.”
Xaba speculates that the Soreno Hotel used the presses to print menus, forms and brochures. Wilder donated these, along with three additional presses, to Boyd Hill Nature Park’s Pioneer Settlement, where his 89-year-old father Fred had volunteered for the past 10 years. Fritz’s friend, Jerry Jones, donated a 2000-pound proof press once owned by The Clearwater Sun.
St. Petersburg Times pressroom employee John Holbrook, a friend of Jones, was the first printmaker to activate the Pioneer Settlement Print Shop, demonstrating printmaking for a group of campers in the summer of 2001.
Crockett brings the presses back to life this November with a Print Party featuring 15-20 printmakers, book artists and paper makers. They’ll be teaching park visitors to screen print shirts, make prints with legos, seashells and more in tents under the shady oaks at Boyd Hill. Crockett’s been announcing the participating artists one by one via thePrint St. Pete Instagram page. Each artist will offer a free demo or art activity for the public.
“All of these are going to be accessible with no experience necessary,” Crockett told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The artists will be demonstrating how to do it. They’ll have a design set up, and you’ll get that experience of screen printing and pressing the ink down onto your own shirt that you’re going to get to take away.”
One of the things Crockett likes most about printmaking is that it’s something you can share. In the case of the official Print Party T-shirt, the artists of St. Pete’s 5801 Print House have already created the design for an old-Florida-style souvenir T-shirt and pre-burned it onto a screen. All you have to do at the event is add ink to the design and press it onto a shirt.
“We’ll just be slinging ink in various forms at the event,” Crockett told CL. “And the shirts will be free while supplies last.”
There’s no cover for Print St. Pete’s Print Party at The Preserve happening Saturday, Nov. 9 at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve’s Pioneer Settlement.
Local artists will demonstrate letterpress, screenprint, woodcuts, gelli prints, paper making, cyanotype, steamroller printing and more at this free, family-friendly printmaking event. And Crockett’s event is just the beginning. The City of St. Pete hopes to host more printmaking events in Boyd Hill’s Print Shop.
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