Tag Archives: Southeastern Printing Company

Going to Press

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Yesterday, July 30, 2024, the Southeastern Printing proof of A Pictorial History of Palm City. Florida was signed and submitted for print. What a feat.

We think those who open the cover will pleased with what they discover.

Unlike when our other books were printed and we saw the big presses running and watched as book designer, Heidi Rich, approved each press sheet, the new book is out of our hands.

Twenty years ago Sandra Thurlow and Heidi Rich check print sheets at Southeastern Printing in
Golden Gate.

Southeastern Printing is no longer in their plant in Golden Gate on A1A, near the Yacht and Country Club of Stuart. The 100 year old company founded by Edwin Menninger has relocated to Hialeah, Florida, adjacent to downtown Miami.

https://www.seprint.com/

This shows a press operator in the Golden Gate plant.

Printing has changed dramatically since 1992 when my first book was printed. The quality diminished so slightly when the presses changed to digital, it was hardly noticeable

A metal printing plate for one side of a sixteen page signature for Stuart on the St. Lucie.

No longer are large metal sheets required. The process was so interesting to me that I kept one of the metal printing plates and a number press sheets.

The blank side of the metal plate looks like shiny aluminum. The antique Bill Greene Chevrolet yardstick shows the plate’s size.

When I pulled the big metal sheet out of the back of a closet so I could photograph it, a sound like thunder erupted. (Something like this must have been used to produce thunder in the era of radio dramas.)

Rolls of stored press sheets from books printed long ago.

Someday, I will throw out the paper and metal trail of book production but some copies of our books will endure long after I have to say “goodbye.”

Since this ad says “85 years,” this ad must have been published 15 years ago.

Southeastern Printing Company

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My latest book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida authored with my daughter, Jacqui Thurlow Lippisch, has been submitted to Southeastern Printing.

Don Mader, owner and CEO of Southeastern Printing Company,

It is such a blessing that the best printing that money can buy is available through a printing company established in Stuart by Edwin Menninger. I say “Stuart,” rather than Martin County, because I learned yesterday from Southeastern’s owner and CEO, Don Mader, that the printing company is celebrating its centennial this year.  It was established before Martin County was created. I am so happy our Palm City pictorial is being printed by the company.

The employees of the Stuart News and Southeastern Printing Company pose in downtown Stuart in December 1955. Edwin Menninger is standing second from the left.

I am so happy our Palm City pictorial is being printed by the company that printed my other pictorial history books. The books are exquisite. When my first book Sewall’s Point— The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida’s Treasure Coast was first printed in 1992, Southeastern’s printing process was quite different. The world had turn to digital by the time my other books were printed.

My customer service representative , Bill Kuhn, and my book designer, Heidi Rich, look on as my book is being printed in the Southeastern plant in Golden Gate.

As I study Edwin Menninger’s contribution to the establishment, survival, and beautification of Martin County in preparation for the county’s centennial in 2025, I am truly amazed.

This is an early ad for what became Southeastern Printing.

As soon as Edwin Menninger set up the South Florida Developer, formerly published in West Palm Beach, in Stuart, he founded the printing business that became Southeastern Printing Company, Inc.