Willis Geist's New Era Printing House was a showcase of state-of-the art typography and state-of-the-art machinery.
In 1877 Willis brought the first rotary printing press to Lancaster, to print the first issues of his New Era newspaper.
In 1890, Willis and his business partner John Warfel, moved their New Era company from the southeast corner of Penn Square ( today's Watt and Shand site) to the New Era building in the first block of North Queen Street.
The next year they installed Lancaster's first electricty-powered printing press, a Goss Web Perfecting Press. The New Era was one of the first American newspapers to be printed on this press.
The New Era printers began printing longer runs and big editions, in quantity and quality that was unthinkable a few years earlier.
Willis may have spent most of his time in the front office, but he had no problem getting grease on his hands. "He always selected and supervised the erection of the machinery used in his business, even to the minutest details." (History of Lancaster County, Ellis and Evans, 1883.) He preferred tinkering with printing presses to "lounging at a summer resort." Willis Geist got the job done.
Above: The Lancaster New Era nameplate (or masthead), today.
In 1928 the New Era was purchased by John Frederick Steinman and James Hale Steinman, the two sons of Willis Geist's business-and-political rival, Andrew Jackson Steinman. The Steinman family continues publication today. The Lancaster New Era is Pennsylvania's largest-circulation afternoon newspaper. The online New Era is Here.
P.S. Thanks to John H. Brubaker, III for being the definitive historian of the Lancaster Newspapers. Some of my New Era information comes from his 1984 book The Steinmans of Lancaster.