Many hands make light work in monolithic effort to preserve history

The Atascadero Printery Foundation continues its monolithic march toward its mission to “Reclaim, rehabilitate, and repurpose the Atascadero Printery Building as a multi-purpose, community-use facility” and with an alignment with Atascadero Performing Arts Center Committee, part of the repurposing will be to facilitate a grand center for the arts and printing museum.
Before getting to the repurposing part of the mission, there is a great deal of rehabilitation going on at the Printery. Each month, there is a scheduled workday led by Jim Dewing to perform any number of maintenance and repair efforts from weeds to electrical, plumbing to windows. The work days are scheduled to allow any volunteers or interested parties to enjoy the community rehabilitation of the building, and provide hands-on assistance and education with regards to our local history.
A full house at the Murder Mystery Dinner on Valentines weekend led to an influx of new Founders and funding, as well as getting in front of a new audience of would-be supporters. Each funding effort plays a key part in the rehabilitation process, and the donations from the Murder Mystery Dinner have already been assigned to a shoring project that will secure the corners of the building and ensure the long-term stability of the oldest building of Atascadero’s historic Civic Centre.
The Atascadero Printery Foundation is the beneficiary of all net proceeds from the upcoming Tent City Marathon, scheduled for April 7. The inaugural event in 2018 brought runners from as far away as New York to come romp through our native hills.
The marathon will have a new trail this year, so watch out for runners on the early morning of April 7 and honk for support of their effort to repurpose the Printery Building.
The runners will begin and end at Sunken Gardens in Atascadero, and there will be information and access to the Printery grounds on the day of the marathon.
A potential event in the works for the Printery Foundation is an “Antique Fair” similar to the Antique Road Show. This event will bring a local antique marketplace to the Printery grounds and McNamara hopes to secure a professional appraiser to provide answers to questions collectors may have about their goods.
Coming in May, the annual Founders Reception will be held to give donors a report on the progress of the building, plans, and rehabilitation efforts. Details were unavailable at press time, but will be released when available at the foundation’s website.
For more information, to volunteer, or donate, go to atascaderoprintery.org.