Former Tribune Building, Terre Haute, Indiana
-Tribune Building History-
Quick Facts:
-The building is located at 721-725 Wabash Avenue
-Crawford Fairbanks purchased the Terre Haute Tribune in 1908
-Fairbanks began making preparations for construction of the new building in 1911
-Businesses at that time that moved to make way for the new
building included Smith & Doyle Saloon, C.F. Schmidt Saloon,
The Nickledom Theater, and DeArmott Brothers Cigar Store
-A "weather perch" tower was built on top of the new building in
July 1912
-The Lease Brothers Billiard Hall moved in on the 3rd Floor of the
new building in July 1912
-The exact "Grand Opening" date is not known
-"Move In" for the printing plant occured from Dec. 2nd-6th, 1912
-The plant came over from the old building at 9th and Ohio
-It was moved by the Union Transfer and Storage Co.
-The press it self was moved in exactly 24 hours!
-The first paper was run in the new building the next morning,
Saturday, Dec. 8, 1912
-The editorial, engraving, and composing departments moved in
on Sunday, Dec. 9th
-Move in was completed Monday, Dec. 10th with no special
fanfare in the paper (!)
-Some of the furnishing and partitioning of the building was still
not complete prior to "move in"
-The Palace Cafe, at 725 Wabash, hosted a special banquet for the
news and composing crew on the evening of Wednesay, Dec. 12th
-All the newsboys got their "Tribs for FREE" as a Christamas bonus
on Dec. 21st. This means they got to keep all proceeds that day!
-A new press (the one on our interior pics page) was installed in
1925
-The R. Hoe & Co. "Octuple" Press could turn out 72,000 sixteen-
page papers in one hour!
-The press had all "self-oiling" parts, a newly-improved folder, and
a safer cutting mechanism than earlier models
-It weighed 186,000 pounds and was 49 feet long, 9 feet wide, and
11 feet tall
-It could use 45 miles of paper in one hour!
-It took four train cars to deliver and sixty days to install!
-This press ran for nearly 55 years! It was replaced in 1980 with
the annexation of the Liberty Theater for a new press
-The 1925 press was "to be disposed of soon" according to the
paper in 1980. It still sat abandoned in the basement as recent
as December 2006
-The Tribune-Star moved into a new office building at 222 S. 7th on June 20, 1997, leaving the former building vacant for nearly 10
years
-The production facility appears to have remained on the 2nd floor
of the "old Trib" until June 28, 2000. This is the date seen on
what is presumably the last set of films left on the boards. Click
here to see a picture of "the boards" taken in December 2006
More to come as time allows...
