Slowing down in a digital world: Bowling Green typewriter shop brings old machines back to life

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — In a world of smartphones, tablets and instant messages, one Bowling Green business owner is finding value in something much slower: the typewriter.

Sam Freeman, owner and lead mechanic at Barren River Typewriter, buys, sells, services and repairs typewriters, bringing machines that may have sat unused for decades back to life.

“I bring something back to life that has kind of been left for dead,” Freeman said. “A lot of these machines haven’t, you know, seen the light of day in 50 years.”

Freeman said his interest in typewriters began while working with the Amish and becoming interested in analog tools. He also remembered a typewriter that belonged to his grandfather.

He eventually found the machine in his grandfather’s office, got it working again and began collecting more.

What started as a personal interest eventually became a business.

Freeman said he once had about a dozen typewriters sitting around his home before his girlfriend encouraged him to start selling them.

Today, Barren River Typewriter serves people ranging from longtime typewriter enthusiasts to young writers, parents buying machines for their children and hobbyists interested in learning how to repair them.

For Freeman, however, the machines offer more than a connection to the past. They provide an opportunity to step away from the constant distractions of modern technology.

“As somebody that uses typewriters, a lot, it’s something that helps slow down life,” Freeman said. “There’s no technology. There’s no crazy electronics telling me I should write this or write that. It’s just whatever’s out of my head onto that paper.”

Some of the machines in Freeman’s collection have stories of their own.

One of his favorites is an Olympia typewriter that types in cursive. Freeman found it in the back of his aunt’s building in Russellville.

“When I open that case … I was just almost hit the floor,” Freeman said. “It types in cursive … and still to this day, that’s my favorite typewriter.”

Another machine, a Remington Five, has an even deeper personal connection. It was Freeman’s first typewriter and belonged to his grandfather, who had it during World War II.

Freeman said he still has letters his grandfather wrote to his grandmother during that time, which he believes may have been written on the same machine.

“Still to this day, that’s just a precious thing I have,” Freeman said.

His interest in typewriters has also connected him with other enthusiasts, including actor and typewriter fan Tom Hanks.

Freeman said he wrote Hanks a letter after learning about Hanks’ interest in typewriters and his documentary, “California Typewriter.” A few months later, Freeman received a letter back from Hanks.

That letter now hangs inside Freeman’s shop.

For Freeman, those connections are part of what makes typewriters worth preserving.

“Every typewriter has a story, and when you’re using it, you get to continue that and you get to be creative with it,” Freeman said.

Barren River Typewriter is located at 855 Lovers Lane, Suite 105 in Bowling Green, Kentucky 42103.

The shop’s current hours are Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, contact Barren River Typewriter at (270) 893-0105 or find the business on Facebook and Instagram at @barrenrivertypewriter.