Tatum's Bookbinding

From the outside, the building looks unused, but Tatum’s Bookbinding is still going strong after over 50 years of service on the corner of Wealthy and Henry. The company was originally purchased in 1912 from Powell, making it over 100 years old. Owners and brothers Jim and Mark McMullen still run their family business, binding and printing books for individual and small publishers.

As far as local businesses go, Tatum is from another era. Their property is no longer even zoned for a bookbinding business, but they haven’t left yet and aren’t planning on it. They still print everything from children’s books to specialty business cards, shipping their products to as far as Miami, Florida and San Antonio, Texas. To do their work, they use some machines over 100 years old. On their website, they explain, “We offer quality cover materials including cloth, imitation leather, and bonded leather. We stamp the titles on the cover with gold and silver foil.”

Jim and Mark’s father bought the current building in 1962 and they moved in 1965. They used to be on the 6^th floor of a building on Ottawa St, but Jim was too young to remember the move. “It was not fun my dad told me. They were on the 6^th floor near where the BOB is now, on Ottawa St. They had to disassemble the machines, take them down the elevator, truck them out, and reassemble them.”

Shortly after they moved, the drug crisis struck the neighborhood. “It got bad,” Jim says, “but it’s really improved. We’re not scared to go into the street anymore. At the time, we couldn’t get rid of the building if we wanted to.” Now property values are rising, and Wealthy Street feels a little safer.

Theirs is a specialty trade that not many know how to do anymore. Their grandfather taught their father who taught them. How did they learn? “Family business,” Jim explained. “We learned through the school of hard knocks, the hard way.”

They are clearly committed to their craft, and anyone who wants to learn it better ask them quick. Committed more to the craft than looks, they want the neighborhood to know, “We’re a bookbindery and print shop. We’re not a commercial establishment.”

Jim McMullen with bookbinding glue

You can check out their website at http://tatumbookbinding.com.