Yes, it is.. and it makes me feel very sad. Although there are places on-line where you can still buy the bookplates, Ernest Morgan's little company is long gone. Well, it's been long gone for a long long time. Many of the former workers - employees still hang out one way or the other - live and face to face, or on facebook - and get together for reunions.
Ernest's idea of a community based workplace run by the employees was a good idea, although it never really became quite what he dreamed. Still, a lot of us value the friendships or just the people we met there. Though we might not all agree politically, socially, religiously on a lot of things, we managed to find ways to work together - we got a lot done. Everyone took pride in the work they did, as they should have - we designed, produced, manufactured, sold, shipped some fine stuff. The work ethic was excellent - I worked there for nearly 20 years, if you count my years in the field (I do) and even the couple of years I left and then returned. Two of my sons worked there, one only as a temp but still...
The Antioch Publishing section is long gone, sold a few years ago. The Creative Memories manufacturing that went on in the building remained until April of this year, but now its gone, along with some 40 jobs. At the moment the building is still standing. But it will probably be sold soon.
There are a few pictures from the lobby - rebuilt after I left in 2000, so I don't have any kind of sentimental attachment to it. But the timeline and the words of Ernest Morgan bring out some feelings -- I suppose the bittersweet recognition that everything must pass.
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