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1953 - Garland Printing was started by E.F. "Breezy" and Charlotte Bruesehoff in the basement of their home with only one hand fed printing press and a Linotype machine for producing the metal type in use at that time. For the first ten years, Garland Printing served its customers from the basement shop.
1963 - This was the year that the business outgrew its basement location and the print shop moved lock, stock and presses to 817 West Garland.
1967 - Increasing business opportunities led to the purchase of a Goss Community Web press. Having two printing units and a paper folder, Garland Printing was in the web press printing business, printing ad sheets for numerous supermarkets and other businesses.
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1978 - This was the year that Garland Printing was purchased by Breezy's daughter and son-in-law, Kay and Bob Sleizer. Now the second generation to own and operate Garland Printing, Kay and Bob had been working with Breezy for a number of years by this time and the transition was a natural one for the family and GPC's customers.
1983 - Continuing to grow, the print shop moved a few doors west to its present location at 833 W. Garland Ave. Formerly occupied by the F-stop darkroom and camera shop, followed by an arts and crafts mini-mall, the building proved nearly ideal for the machines and services of Garland Printing.
2000 - Starting a new century, Garland Printing also begins management by the third generation of family members: Kay and Bob's sons, Mark and Jeff. Keeping up with advances in the industry, Garland Printing has added the latest in digital prepress technology. |
 I remember when Breezy bought this Heidelberg press. It was 1954 and a couple of salesmen had mounted the press on the back of a flat-bed truck. They were driving around Spokane and the area, demonstrating the press to the various print shops. Pulling up in front of a shop, they would use an extension cord to "borrow" some electricity, plug in the press and run a small job. This turned out to be a very effective sales technique, and they sold eight or nine of the presses here in Spokane. It cost $2,200 at that time, and was a state-of-the-art platen press. Heidelberg stopped producing this press in about 1980. Today, it remains the fastest platen press in the world. The press is still in use here at Garland Printing, where we use it to print items that require sequential numbering.
Bob Sleizer
 Here's a larger version of the picture of Breezy that's on the home page. In the detail, you can read the headline on the article about the grand opening for the Garland Camera center. This building later housed the F-Stop rental darkroom for several years. It is now the home of Garland Printing. Garland Avenue businesses and friends have come and gone, but Garland Printing endures.
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