For Daneille Chargo, using presses that are hundreds of years old is perfect for her business.
But this past year, her business had started to outgrow the space she had on Mount Vernon Main Street.
“Prior to this location only one of our presses was in our storefront, leaving two presses and our paper cutter in our garage at home,” Chargo said. “Having all our equipment in one location was a major consideration in moving to a new location. We were also able to hire more staff and be able to have multiple people working in the space at the same time. We also now have a dedicated office space, along with a table for production work or for meeting with clients.”
Chargo’s business, Iron Leaf Press, was named the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group Business of the Year.
“I’m very honored to be selected as the Business of the Year. Iron Leaf Press has been part of this community for 10 years now and I’m always so grateful for the community support that has kept me in business all these years,” Chargo said.
The business started in her upper story apartment in Mount Vernon in 2012 with a small tabletop press. In April 2013, she bought a 1,500 pound press, which meant she needed to locate a business space. She found that in downtown Lisbon, where Iron Leaf Press remained for two years. She relocated to uptown Mount Vernon in October 2015 and now, down the street at the former pharmacy space, opening doors in November 2022.
Chargo had toured the pharmacy space in February 2022, and found the main business part of the pharmacy was too large for her needs for a print shop.
“I thought long and hard about the building attached to the former pharmacy. It had a garage door, concrete floors, and a level entry into the building which checked off three of my largest concerns with a new space,” Chargo said. “The building was built as a standard service station and for the past 40-50 years had been used as warehouse space. Since it hadn’t been customer facing in many years, it did take some renovations that were done in partnership with the owners of the building. Those were completed over the summer and fall of 2022 including replacing the entry door and garage door, plus adding a new window.”
New electrical, HVAC and clean up also happened to the space.
Having all of her presses, including that from 1890, in one location eliminates one of the issues she had.
“Over the years, I’ve added more equipment, but had no space for it in our uptown business storefront,” Chargo said. “That meant I’d spend time at home closing the doors to my business to utilize equipment that was in our garage or running home from the uptown storefront to complete something on a job.”
If people have not frequented Iron Leaf Press, they are now located at 113 First Street Northeast Suite A (across the street from the First Street Community Center).
Aside from letterpress printing, the store also features stationery and greeting cards, pens, pencils, journals, planners and other stationery-related products.
“We also sell our greeting cards and stationery wholesale to other stores around the country,” Chargo said. “Our products are also sold worldwide through our online store. We’ve printed stationery for Joanna Gaines, an ESPN anchor, a famous musician, and a pro-baseball player, among many others. Last year we shipped over 1000 orders around the world.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

--Submitted photo

The Iron Leaf press space before (on the left) and remodeled (on the right).