AMHERST — At least 250 typewriters, manual and electric and carrying a variety of brand names, are being removed from a downtown store and carefully loaded into the back of a van parked nearby.
Even as the IBM, Remington, Corona and Hermes Rocket typewriters are pulled out from the Amherst Typewriter and Computer Service at 41 North Pleasant St. by Jeremy Skillings, many of the other items still inside, like aging laptop computers and adding machines, are being examined to determine what resale possibilities there are.
The work is all part of bringing the long-running business to a close by finding new homes for much of the equipment, whether it be an antique double-decker typewriter or a Tom Thumb children’s model.
“This is not a simple proposition, but there’s enough value in here,” Skillings says as he examines all of the items, standing along a narrow path along a wooden floor and doing much of the work with only the natural light coming in from the windows, with no electricity or heat inside the space.
The clearing out of the small store this week is part of the preparation for the coming demolition to make way for a new mixed-use building by Amherst developer Barry Roberts. The only other tenant in the circa 1900s building is the neighboring McMurphy’s Uptown Tavern, which is moving directly across the street to the former White Lion Brewing space. At one time, the Amherst Boys and Girls Club used upstairs space.
While the store run by Robert Green, 79, who first opened the business in 1976, is packed with equipment, Skillings said there is no evidence of hoarding, observing that Green has used a lot of care in what he brought into the business.
“It is absolutely a collection,” Skillings said.
Skillings said the first few days after getting the keys from Roberts’ team involved compiling a list of what’s inside, such as first-generation laptops, like two first edition MacBooks, and rotary phones. The products also include fax machines and answering machines, calculators and adding machines, watch batteries and computer repair equipment, and various cords, power blocks, hard drives and watches.
Much of this, though, could end up in a dumpster.
“There are some, I look at them, and just say ‘no’,” Skillings said.
Even though shuttered for the most part since the pandemic, Skillings said the site is clean, with little evidence of rodents and just a lone squirrel that has been using part of the space.
There is a lot of work involved in hauling out stuff, Skillings said, though he got unexpected help from a couple of missionaries in packing blue bags full of various items.
“You buckle down and don’t stop until you go to sleep,” Skillings said.
Skillings, who grew up in Amherst, is CEO of Hemptation USA, an online distributor of CBD products. He returned to Amherst two years ago from Ohio, but didn’t know Green until around 18 months ago, when he chatted with him while sitting beneath a tree outside the store.
Since that chance encounter he has tried to “find the path of least resistance” to ensure that items would find good homes. Then he developed a sales agreement so that Green would benefit from the eventual sales.
Amherst Typewriter and Computer Service is not only one of the longest running businesses, but as a Black-owned business has also provided a sense of community, including for some college students. The store has had some hard-to-find items, such as specific watch batteries.
Green came to Amherst with his late wife, Dorothy, to attend the University of Massachusetts, started the business in the basement of the prominent yellow building, next to Kendrick Park, where Silverscape Jewelers was once located, and continued repairing typewriters, eventually expanding his skills to computers.
The shop has been at its current site since 2000, after 13 years at 65 North Pleasant St., which is The Monkey Bar, and a few years at 32 Amity St., part of the Amherst Cinema building.
The Greens also overcame racial intimidation in the past, including in the late 1990s when a window was shattered at his business, and other incidents occurred, prompting residents to organize the Not In Our Town Coalition.
The immediate investment for Skillings is the 24-hour rental of a van and paying $200 a month to put the equipment into storage. He will then use eBay and and his own website, under the name tinymarket, to sell the items.
“I want to make some kind of community-focused connections,” Skillings said.
Sometime in the new year, Skillings will head to Ohio, but then will be back in his hometown. “Amherst is my vibe, it’s a nice place for me to be.”
Splitting the ownership of the possessions, an old cash register and a box filled with vinyl record albums will be among the other items sold. Skillings said he may add a section to the website centered on Amherst where questions could be answered as items are sold.
“I’m OK with selling stuff from my couch,” Skillings said.
