Ocean View Typewriters
May 23, 2025
After watching California Typewriter with my friend, Sue, she came across a beautiful typewriter at the local consignment shop and couldn’t resist snatching it up. She wanted to get to know her new acquisition a bit better and in her quest for information she discovered Ocean View Typewriters just a short jog down the road in Port Mouton. She arranged for a visit/tour/information session and invited me to come along.
I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting but I can say that the experience was so much more than I thought it was going to be or could have ever imagined. The owner and technician at Ocean View Typewriters is Rachel Spence. She has an incredible collection of well over fifty typewriters. They are all beautifully curated in display cases complete with contemporary advertisements for some of the machines. Rachel gave us an extensive tour of her finely tuned collection while sharing her vast knowledge of everything typewriters. It’s easy to see how much pride she takes in restoring these machines to beautiful working condition. They absolutely shine in their display cases and they are all ready to work, just begging for a blank piece of paper and ready hands.
Our brains were already heavy with so much new information when the experience moved from visual into tactile. Rachel sat us down at the desk and proceeded to bring us typewriter after typewriter from different eras, in different colours and sometimes with different fonts. There were the cream of the crop typewriters with all of the bells and whistles and there were the bare bones models that barely had anything except capital letters, and all of the models in between. Then she let us loose to type on them all. Each and every one is different. Different in appearance, different in the way your hands rest on the keys, and different in the way they type. Being able to sample that many models, styles and eras all in one afternoon is a pretty special experience. It’s one I’ll never forget.
The last item on the agenda was to discuss our own personal machines. After going through the tour and sampling Rachel’s machines I had a much better understanding of my typewriter and how it fit into the history of the typewriting machine. I think Sue felt the same. Even though both machines are from the 1930s, Sue’s machine is closer to the cream of the crop and mine is closer to bare bones. We now have the added bonus of knowing the various functions on each of our machines and how to use them including the all important ink ribbon and how to load it properly. My next task is to get as much dirt and dust out of my little typewriter so that I don’t have to hammer the keys so hard.
If you have a machine that you would like to have serviced or are interested in typewriters in any way, I encourage you to reach out to Rachel. There isn’t a collection like it or a person as knowledgeable as Rachel for miles around. I promise it’s worth the trip!
