Stansbury

This Stanhope Press is on permanent loan to Fiddlers Grove Historic Village from the Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, TN.

It was originally purchased by the Western Methodist Book Concern of Cincinnati in the early 1830s. The Western Methodist Book Concern was established in 1820 as a branch of the main Methodist Book Concern in New York. In 1939, the Northern and Southern Methodist Episcopal churches reunited (after splitting during the Civil War) and were joined by the Methodist Protestant Church to form the "United Methodist Church." At this point, all Methodist publishing was consolidated to Nashville, TN.

Sometime after the consolidation, this press was relocated to Nashville. A sign at Fiddlers Grove Historic Village reads, "This is the first press used in the Cincinnati Plant of The Methodist Publishing House. Purchased in New York in 1832, it was brought by wagon across the Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh and by flatboat down to Cincinnati." It seems unlikely that this press was made in Cincinnati, shipped to New York, only to be sold and shipped back to Cincinnati. This could still be the Western Methodist Book Concern's first press (purchased in Cincinnati versus New York), or it's provenance could have been conflated with another press through the years.

Fiddlers Grove Historic Village

945 E Baddour Pkwy, Lebanon, TN 37087

https://fiddlersgrovetn.com/historic-buildings/printing-office/