Terre Haute Postcards

More postcards from my collection...

Tribune Building

This postcard, posted in Terre Haute on January 12th, 1914, has the printed text...

A18710
W
C. T. Photochrom

In 1908 Crawford Fairbanks purchased the Terre Haute Tribune and the new building to house it was started in 1911 at 721-725 Wabash Avenue. The site was already occupied by the Smith & Doyle Saloon, C. F. Schmidt Saloon, Nickledon Theater and the DeArmott Brothers Cigar Store and these relocated. The "Weather Perch" tower was added to the roof of the building in 1912. Once complete, the Lease Brothers Billiard Hall occupied the third floor in July 1912.

The presses and other plant for the Tribune was moved from the old building at 9th and Ohio by the Union Transfer and Storage Company into the new building between 2nd and 6th December 1912 and the first newspapers from it were run off on Saturday, December 8th.

A new R. Hoe & Company "Octuple" Press was installed in 1925 and housed in the old Liberty Theater, which can be seen to the left of the main building in the postcard picture. This press weighed 186,000 pounds, was 49 feet long, 9 feet wide and 11 feet tall. It arrived on four train cars and took 60 days to install. It could use 45 miles of paper in one hour - enough for 72,000 sixteen-page newspapers.

The Tribune-Star, now owned by thomsom Newspapers, moved into a new office building at 222 South 7th Street on June 20, 1997, leaving the former building vacant for nearly 10 nears. In 2006, the old 1925 printing press was still in it's original position. In 2008, the building started a new lease of life as part of the Candlewood Suites Hotel.

This page created 26th November 2009, last modified 26th November 2009