Not too far up the road, just slightly off the beaten path in Darien, lies a little building filled with magic: drawers and drawers of letters and numbers of every size and shape, meticulous carvings on block, long-lost logos on metal type, reams and reams of paper, and inky centuries-old presses. This is the Ashantilly Press.
Julie Andrew Tharpe
Ashantilly Press sign
The print shop sits on a beautiful 34 acre property filled with magnolias and moss-draped oaks that overlooks the marshes of Black Island Creek and in the shadow of one of Georgia’s oldest existing residences. Ashantilly’s main house, “Old Tabby,” was constructed as the winter home of Thomas Spalding sometime prior to 1820. Spalding was a prominent business and political leader, an innovative planter who made much of his fortune from Sea Island cotton. His main residence was on Sapelo Island, where he owned a majority of the property. A descendent of Scottish royalty, he named the Regency-style Darien home Ashantilly after one of his family’s holdings in Scotland.
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Ashantilly exterior 1
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Ashantilly exterior 2
After Spalding died in 1851, Ashantilly suffered some hard times. It was damaged in the Civil War and abandoned for years before it was purchased and restored in 1870. It was in 1918, however, that William Haynes, Jr., the man who would forever leave his legacy here first arrived as a 10-year-old boy.
Bill Haynes and his family had a deep love of their home at Ashantilly. Haynes would leave Darien after high school to pursue his education and a career in New York, attending art school there and soaking in the culture. But when the Great Depression struck and made employment and success less likely in the big city, Haynes returned home to Darien. Sadly, in 1937, Ashantilly was gutted by fire. Haynes was then an “artist-enrollee” assigned to Camp-92 on Blythe Island as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He was unable to rebuild the house immediately due to the economic environment of the time, so for two years it sat in ruin. After receiving a moderate inheritance, he began restoration in the winter of 1939. Haynes was subsequently drafted into the Army and spent years in New Guinea, visiting Australia and Brazil, among other places, along the way. He later produced a two-volume diary of those years, entitled A Journal of a Voyage to Australia and New Guinea. As described by William Rawlings, in “Ashantilly – The Unfinished Legacy,” an article he wrote for Georgia Backroads, it was “beautifully written in meticulous calligraphic style and richly illustrated with watercolor sketches of people, places and events.” This was precisely the artistic style for which Haynes would become known.
It was a class in typesetting and hand printing that Haynes took at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City following his discharge in 1945 that is credited with giving him the inspiration to open a small press. He continued his education by taking additional classes on printing and working with some of the foremost book designers of the era. In 1955, just a year after his return to Darien, Haynes purchased a small hand-press and so began the Ashantilly Press.
Julie Andrew Tharpe
Hand Press in Print Shop at Ashantilly
Rawlings writes of the early days at Ashantilly Press, “Haynes first job was a reproduction of a historic plan of nearby Fort King George. His first book was born from the simple request to reproduce an out-of-print 1923 work titled Anchored Yesterdays, a history of the early days of the City of Savannah. Haynes agreed to take on the project only if he could redesign the book to his exacting standards. Laboriously producing a series of woodblocks for illustrations, setting each line of type by hand and printing one page at a time, it took him 18 months to print the initial run of 500 copies. The work won the Southern Books Competition prize for 1956, the first of many such awards.”
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Carved wood block with shrimp boat
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Carved wood blocks
Haynes’ works were unique and artful, his creations were embellished with prints and letters that he had carved in wood block to print. Because of Haynes’ artistry and meticulous work, the Ashantilly Press produced less than one book per year—a total of 30 books in its 35 year history. Runs were small, with typically no more than 500 copies printed, making each volume a collector’s item. The press also printed cards and posters. The last work printed at Ashantilly Press under Bill Haynes was in 1991. Before his death in 2001, Haynes and his sisters founded Ashantilly Center as a non-profit corporation that maintains the house and grounds as a living museum for the public to enjoy. The Center hosts regular cultural and historical events and workshops.
That first small hand-press gleams brightly in a place of honor in the living room of the main house today, but the print shop is no pristine museum. It is filled with boxes of used type, scraps of paper, ink and oil, paper cutters and various other tools of the trade. Dirty aprons hang on hooks on the wall. Hayes’ 1839 Chandler and Price platen press has been joined by another Chandler and Price press and a Vandercook proof press. Small hand-presses are used for class field trips and demonstrations both in and out of the shop. And while there are some “don’t touch anything” rules about type that is set and the huge paper cutter that can slice through reams, this is a hands-on operation. The Center’s staff is excited to invite people in and show them around.
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Ashantilly Original Press
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Ashantilly Original Press 2
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Motorized Press
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Ashantilly Press apron
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Paper Cutter
Ashantilly Center President Harriet Langford is a brilliant ambassador for the Center and its programs. Her love for Ashantilly and Haynes’ legacy of conservation, art, culture, and education is evident and contagious. Vice-President Sara Blocker is happy to show you the press in action and let you peruse the drawers of carved blocks and lead type in every imaginable font and size at your leisure, pointing out pieces of interest.
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Lead Type in Drawers at Ashtantilly
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Box of type
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More type
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Ashantilly Original Press
Sara will explain galleys and chases and the ins and outs of the letterpress and does so with a smile. She talks about the shop and the nearby garage that houses just as much, if not more, type and print blocks. There are entire assembled works by Haynes that still wrapped and tied—some which may never have been inked and printed. Sara also praises Nicholas Silberg, a Savannah State art professor, who works on the presses and teaches classes. Ashantilly now holds workshops on card making and letterpress printing, and has hosted guest printers and artists as well. While some may consider printing a dying art, at Ashantilly Center, Bill Haynes’ legacy is very much alive.
Ashantilly is located just off of GA Highway 99, adjacent to historic St. Andrews Cemetery, approximately 1.5 miles from the center for Darien. See the Center’s website at ashantilly.org for event information or call 912.437.4473 to arrange a tour.
**There's also a great way to help the center this month. On October 17, they're hosting an Olde Time BBQ & Hard Cider Tasting featuring delicious barbecue from Darien's Rick Caldwell, hard apple cider tasting (regular cider and tea also available) and Americana from Waits & Co. from Savannah. Tickets are $35 and proceeds benefit Ashantilly Center and help to maintain the historic property. Visit the website or call for tickets.**
