Chicago Times Building I & II

The Times Building I
Life Span: 1856-1871
Location: Various Locations
Architect:

“It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell”—Wilbur F. Storey, The Chicago Times, 1861

D. B. Cooke’s & Co.’s City Directory For the Year 1859-60

Chicago Times

Chicago Times Book & Job Printing Establishment

Chicago Weekly Times

Halpin & Bailey’s Chicago City Directory for the Year 1863-1864
Chicago Times, 74 Randolph

Edwards’ City of Chicago Directory for 1869-70
Chicago Times, W. F. Storey & Co, publishers and proprs. 118 Dearborn

Edwards’ City of Chicago Directory for 1870
Chicago Times—West side of Dearborn street, between Washington and Madison.

Edwards’ City of Chicago Directory for 1871
Chicago Times, W. F. Storey & Co, publisher, 118 Dearborn

D. B. Cooke & Co.’s City Directory of Chicago for the Yeqr 1859-60

Chicago Tribune, March 22, 1862

Office Crash at Chicago Times.
At one o’clock yesterday afternoon a very unexpected catastrophe occurred at the location of the Daily Times, on Randolph street, near State. The rear building of the office is a large, two-story brick, with a fiat, composition roof. It appears that a great quantity of snow, blown from other and higher buildings, bad accumulated on this roof, proved to be too heavy for it, and at the hour above named the central portion, embracing an area of about forty feet, suddenly gave way, and, with a tremendous crash, came down into the news-room, demolishing the floor and precipitating cases, racks, tables, “turtles,” composing stones, presses and types into the job-room below.

Three small presses—one of them a card-press—were very nearly ruined. The four cylinder press, on which the piper is worked, was in a position where it recieved no injury. The amount of type instantly knocked into pi, was by no means small, including some job and all the newspaper material; indeed, the wreck and ruin of the property was fearful. At the moment of the crash, there were eight or ten employes of the office in the news-room, but, strange to relate, not one of them was seriously hurt. The escape of Mr. Joseph Bennett seemed almost miraculous. Being near the centre of the room, he was caught by the descending rubbish and carried through to the lower floor; yet his only injury was an insignificant bruise. Most of the compositors were near one side of the room in the act of eating their dinner—which fact doubtless contributed to their safety.

The building is owned by Messrs. Freer, Merrick & Hamlin. The total loss cannot as yet be correctly estimated, but it must certainly amount to several thousand dollars. Workmen were promptly engaged In repair-lng the damages and righting up affairs in the office. The -proprietors of the Timet found It Impossible, in the mixed up condition of matters, to issue any sheet this morning. Their paper will probably re-appear by to-morrow.

The following note explains itself:

Office Chicago Times, No. 74 Randolph. St., Chicago, March 21, 1863

Chicago Tribune

The Times

Our neighbors have our sympathy in this serious loss and interruption of their business; yet, while the destruction of property is deeply to be deplored, it is a matter of some congratulation that this sudden wreck of a large bunding was attended with no loes of life or serious bodily injury to any person.

Thirty-five Years of Journalism, Franc B. Wilkie, 1892

In 1867 the Times had been removed to the new marble front building on Dearborn Street, on the west side, and on the northwest corner of the alley between Madison and Washington Streets. The editor knew nothing of building material or prices, and was shockingly swindled in the erection of the new structure. Its hallways were narrow, its floor-joists and partitions weak, and the probabilities are that, had it not, a few years later, burned down, it would, in time, have tumbled into the basement from disintegration.

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History of Chicago, By A. T. Andreas, 1886

The Times¹ was founded in 1854 by Isaac Cook, James Sheahan¹ and David Cameron. Mr. Sheahan conducted it until the summer of 1860 when it was purchased by Cyrus H. McCormick, who was also the owner of the Herald. The Herald had been founded in 1858, to represent the Buchanan, or administration, democracy. Mr. McCormick consolidated the two papers under the name of the Herald and Times, intending eventually to drop the name Times.

He placed E. W. McComas in editorial charge, a journalist from Virginia, and the paper then became an exponent of Southern democracy. The paper was then published in the fifth story of the McCormick Block, on the corner of Randolph and Dearborn streets. The circulation was but little over one thousand, with no advertising patronage worth mentioning. In a very short time these quarters were found to be too small, and a removal was made to No. 74 Randolph Street, and the paper began to assume the enterprise and audacity which were henceforth to be its chief characteristics.

The close of the war found the Times one of the most prosperous newspapers in the city, and it was compelled to enlarge its quarters and press facilities. In 1866, a new building with a stone front was erected on the southwest corner of Dearborn Street and Calhoun Place. It was five stories in height, and intended expressly for the Times.

It was the main life-work of one man, and in no particular can it be disjoined from him. However the Great Fire of 1871 burned the building and paralyzed the publication.

NOTES:

¹ The Chicago Times (1854 – 1895) is not to be confused with the Chicago Daily Times (1929 – 1948) which merged with the Chicago Sun (1941 – 1948) and became the Chicago Sun-Times (1948-Present).
The Chicago Times (1854 – 1895), after several mergers, eventually became Chicago’s American which was known in its last years as Chicago Today.

NOTES:

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