Story by Brennon Clark
Photos by Matt Phillips
The shelves of the shop are lined with relics of the past. The gold etched font on the machines reads Remington, Smith Corona, and Underwood, once household names that have long been replaced by Apple, HP, and Sony.
Nestled in the back of a home in Junction City, Oregon, the shop is owned by a man who can fix almost any typewriter. It once had two locations and multiple employees but time and a changing world have reduced it to a one-man business. Its owner is one of Oregon’s last typewriter repairmen. Jim Cagle, 74, has been tinkering with typewriters for 54 years.
His career began in 1958 when Cagle saw a newspaper advertisement for a position as a repairman with the Remington Typewriter Company in San Francisco. It seemed a better opportunity than the odd jobs he’d held after serving three years in the Navy. Repair work was something he liked and Remington provided the training.
Cagle moved to Oregon in 1989 and began working at The Typewriter Shop in Springfield. When the owner retired in 1997, Cagle purchased the store. It wasn’t until the following year that Cagle started to see a decline in typewriter use. Business dropped so dramatically that he decided to close the shop in 1999. He opted to continue repairing typewriters single-handedly in Junction City where he lives with his wife, Gene, who formerly worked alongside Jim in the store.
In the converted back room at Cagle’s house, typewriters cover the floor, making the already small space feel that much smaller. Here Cagle reminisces about the early days of his career, the golden age of typewriters.
“In the first couple years I worked on typewriters, I heard that six computers would be all they would need for the entire world,” he says. “They never dreamed there would be computers in every home.”
Despite his connection to typewriters, Cagle says he prefers using a computer (he has a desktop model at home). He often communicates with other typewriter repairmen through online message boards and e-mail. Most of Cagle’s business, which has remained steady since he relocated the store to his home, comes by word of mouth. He has a business card and Facebook page, but uses no other forms of advertisement.
For his business, Cagle’s policy is first in, first out. The typewriter he receives first will be the first repaired and finished. “I sometimes take a beating on them because some take up more time than I anticipated,” he says. “But right now I’m not so much in it for the money as I am because I love the work.” It takes about three days for Cagle to start and finish a client’s typewriter once he begins.
Restoring typewriters to their former glory is no easy task. New parts are rare so Cagle mainly buys replacement pieces online from other repairmen and enthusiasts. He can fix most of the typewriters he receives unless the parts are rusted or there are no keys (two of the more common repair problems he sees).
“Some people are cutting the keys off the typewriters and it’s really making collectors mad,” Cagle says. “They use them for jewelry and it destroys a perfectly good machine.” Remington keys are a frequent victim of key cutting because of their distinctive silver edges, which can be used to make cuff links or rings.
One typewriter can have anywhere between 400 to 600 parts. Each machine gets stripped down and reassembled every time Cagle cleans and fixes it. Memorization, he says, is the only way to learn the intricacies of a typewriter. When Cagle started his training more than 50 years ago, he took a class on how to repair each new model of typewriter that came out. He has attended more than 25 classes just for Smith Corona models and still has the stack of course completion certificates to prove it.
Among all the machines in Cagle’s tiny shop, one group in particular stands out: five rows of gleaming typewriters, each with its own label depicting a model and year. This is Cagle’s private collection. It includes a 1939 Remington and a blind typewriter (the “blind” refers to the paper being faced away from the typist). The outsides of the machines may look pristine, but Cagle is the first to admit his collection needs a good cleaning. As the only typewriter repairman in the area, he has trouble finding time to work on his own models.
Cagle believes that many of the people for whom he restores typewriters want them fixed to actually type on. “Typing on an older typewriter is very different than a computer or even an electric typewriter,” Cagle says. “There is no spell check; you have to think about your English. Getting it right the first time is important or you will end up having to start over.” In recent years, he says more young people and members of academia have brought him typewriters.
University of Oregon journalism professor Thomas Bivins owns five mechanical typewriters. He first sought out Cagle to fix his 1930 Underwood. The next best option was to ship it to Chicago.
“I don’t want anything that doesn’t work. Otherwise it is just a good-looking piece of junk,” says Bivins, who occasionally writes letters on his typewriters.
“It’s now the best typewriter I own,” he says of getting the Underwood back from Cagle. “I was so impressed with the work Jim did that I took him my other typewriters.” Cagle spent a little over three months fixing the remaining four.
Of all the machines he’s worked on, Cagle’s personal favorite is markedly similar to the laptop many college students use every day. The portable desktop typewriter is a model small enough to be carried from work to home. Even though the typewriter variation may no longer be a relevant form of technology, Cagle works to keep the dying medium alive. His view on the typewriter’s importance, however, remains modest.
“All it really is is a more efficient way to write,” he says. “The sad part is that I’ve already met kids who don’t even know what a typewriter is.”

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Repairing History