For Mike Kelley, it’s a death in the family.
For McLean, it’s another sign of the change from a small farm town into a busy community full of new jobs, new technology, new businesses.
After 34 years, Kelley and Co., a printing house on Whittier Avenue, has closed its doors for good.
A simple, white flier is taped to one of the square windows of the white doors, reading, “Many of you seem like family, and we sincerely looked forward to greeting and serving you. You will never be forgotten, and we’re sure to see you in McLean now and then!”
“It’s painful for me, I’ve been here since the beginning,” Kelley said. His father, Bruce, began the company in 1972 on a fluke: He had been a real estate broker who happened to have one of the first copy machines in McLean.
“Mostly in the beginning I came in to push a broom. I’d answer the phone when he [his dad] had to go out, and people would come in and ask to make a copy on our machine,” Kelley said. “People started throwing nickels on the counter for the copies. It got to be a lot of nickels,” he chuckled.
Eventually, Bruce Kelley left the real estate business, a decision Mike Kelley thinks his dad may have kicked himself for making, to focus on making copies and venturing into the printing business.
The current Kelley and Co. office replaced a carport that the business started in, across the street from the house the Kelleys lived in.
“My family’s been in McLean since the 1950s. I remember how it used to be,” he said.
At various times, the whole family, including Joan Kelley and Mike’s brothers, Bruce Jr. and Mark, worked in the shop. Mike Kelley said he worked during breaks from college and eventually returned to run the store.
“There were other printing companies in McLean, but we were the first quick printers,” he said, meaning their work was based on copying images from existing documents instead of using a printing press.
MOST OF their customers came to Kelley and Co. for invitations, brochures, newsletters and business documents.
“What amazes me is that newsletters used to be huge in McLean. Everyone had a newsletter, from beekeepers to schools to churches, lots of community newsletters,” he said.
However, with the evolution and expansion of technology starting in the 1990s, the printing business began to slow down considerably.
“Everyone in McLean suddenly had a color laser printer,” Kelley said. “It seemed to happen suddenly, but it really came over a number of years.”
When the Internet became the newest, fastest and best way to transmit information, people stopped printing newsletters.
“When the industry went digital, that was almost the last nail in our coffin,” he said, eyes becoming distant and almost mournful with the realization that the business couldn’t continue much longer. “People used to come to us with pictures to make calendars, but with digital cameras and laser jet printers, that can all be done at home.”
The decision to close came about three weeks ago and was made by the family as a whole.
“We hung in with our faithful customer base for as long as we could,” he said. “They were great, like members of an extended family.”
But with his parents ready to retire, it was time to say goodbye.
“Everything has a beginning and an end, and here we are, at the end,” he said, voice shaking ever so slightly.
SOME LOYAL CUSTOMERS, like Sue Burke King of the McLean Citizens Association, are heartbroken to hear of the company’s closing.
“I just found out about it over the weekend. I was totally shocked,” she said.
For Burke, a resident of McLean, Kelley and Co. was a convenient stop to drop off projects on the way to work she needed copied, that she couldn’t make at her office in Leesburg.
“They were always so friendly and upbeat,” she said. “Mr. Kelley always had really good jokes, and he was always ready to tell them.”
She will miss the personalized service and closeness that naturally occurred in the years she used their business. “I don’t think you could ever substitute that service … it’s the personalized service that always brought me back.”
Sadly, she admits that this closing is another sign of the times, that change and progress are taking over McLean.
“Some of the people who have died in the past year, like John Fredricks, who we lost in January, they gave so much of their life to this community. Kelley’s was the same way, and now we’re losing them,” she said. “This is traumatic. I’m not sure people dedicate themselves like that anymore.”
Marion Knowles, a long-time resident of McLean, said she used to enjoy going into Kelley’s to make copies of tax documents or bills or to reproduce old photos.
“They were always so nice and friendly, very accommodating,” she said. “There was nothing too small for them to help me with. Kelley’s has been one of those McLean institutions, and it’s really sad to see them go.”
Places like Kelley’s were “part of the fun of being part of McLean,” she said. “I was so surprised to see that they closed.”
GLANCING AROUND the sunlit shop, Mike Kelley seemed to see the ghosts of what once was a thriving business. He talked of an old-fashioned printing press, still in the basement, that he used to play around with in the early days. He nodded to the odd decorations, some in Chinese, some in Arabic, which his father used to make the business look more interesting to its patrons. He sighed.
“I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to everyone,” he said. “We hold our customers next to our hearts.”
Now that the business is closed, he’s in the process of selling off what’s left of the inventory at the store and trying to picture what’s next in his life.
“I’m going to take some time. I’ve got to move on, but I feel such a loss,” he said, adding that he hopes to go back and finish his degree, play some music, maybe teach piano lessons.
“In a way, I’m glad that I’m the one to close the shop,” he said. “I was here when it opened. My parents decided that, rather than trying to change owners, it should end with me. This whole business was all our dream.”