Throwback Thursday – Printers Building Company

Our weekly Throwback Thursday trip through the Epstein photographic archives takes us back to October 1966 for the opening of the 85,000 square foot Printers Building Company Factory and Office located within the Centex Industrial Park in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Epstein designed and engineered this one-story $1M ($7.35M in 2015) facility which housed the Graphic Arts Division of Printers parent company, The Jupiter Corporation.

In the late 60s, 70s and 80s Printers Building Company was a major print production firm for its clients in the catalog, direct mail, advertising and book industries located throughout the United States. In addition, this plant also produced coiled trading stamps, like the S&H Green Stamps of years gone by. If you arent familiar with what coiled trading stamps are think of it like a loyalty card from one of your favorite retailers, but instead of having all of your past transactions digitized on a credit card, you had a book in which you placed the stamps you were awarded upon purchasing items. Then after you filled up your book with stamps you could trade the completed book in for items like toys, housewares, furniture and appliances. Yes, we know, how did the world survive such barbaric times? Coiled stamps are almost as bad a rotary phones! Almost.

In case you are wondering, the Printers Building Company as well as the Jupiter Corporation no longer exist after the market for print products like catalogs and direct mailers plunged over the past 15 years.