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Coordinates: 34°44′47.21″N 92°16′17.53″W / 34.7464472, -92.2715361

Gazette Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Gazette Building
Location:	Little Rock, Arkansas[1]
Built/Founded:	1908[1]
Architect:	Peter Hotze[2] and George Richard Mann[2][3]
Added to NRHP:	October 22, 1976 [4]
NRHP Reference#:	76002239[2]

The Gazette Building, located at 112 West Third street in Downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, was built in 1908 for the purpose of housing the Arkansas Gazette newspaper.^[1] The Gazette was the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River that had been published continuously by the same name until it was purchased in 1991 by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, it's longtime rival.^[5] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 22nd, 1976.^[4] Although recognized as an architecturally significant structure, the primary significance of the Gazette Building lies in its representation of the Arkansas Gazette.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] The Arkansas Gazette

The Arkansas Gazette, Arkansas’s first newspaper, was established in 1819, seventeen years before Arkansas became a state. During it's early years, it played an important role in statewide elections and in helping the Arkansas Territory achieve statehood.^[5]

After Abraham Lincoln was elected president as a Republican in 1860, the Gazette urged a calm, objective approach as many southerners urged immediate sucession. Due to paper shortages, the Gazette was forced to suspend operations on September 10, 1863 when Union forces captured Little Rock. The newspaper was revived on May 1, 1865 and published editorials in favor of resumed allegiance to the Union. Later, after reconstruction began in 1867, the Gazette became a leader in the Democratic opposition, advocating any means necessary to end Republican rule.^[5]

The Gazette Building was constructed during a plethora of substantive changes to the newspaper initiated by brothers John and Fred Heiskell who served as editor-in-chief and managing editor, respectively, during the early twentieth century. In 1948, John Heiskell appointed son-in-law Hugh B. Patterson as publisher. Joining Heiskell and Patterson was Harry Ashmore, who came on as executive editor in 1947. Ashmore correctly anticipated that the coming of the race issue would be the major story of the mid-twentieth century, and his arrival in Little Rock marked a major development in American journalism and history.^[5]

[edit] Desegregation Crisis

See also: Little Rock Nine, Orval Faubus, and Little Rock Central High School

After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruling that mandated desegregation of American schools, the Little Rock School District put together a plan for gradual desegregation beginning in the fall of 1957. The Gazette editorialized that Little Rock could be a model for the rest of the country, but on the eve of the opening of the schools, Ashmore got word that Governor Orval Faubus planned to stop the integration. Ashmore met with Patterson and Heiskell at the Gazette building to plan the newspaper’s stance on the issue. Ashmore and Patterson believed that the Gazette’s editorial position should be for law and order, which at the time amounted to endorsing integration. Heiskell listened to the two and reportedly said, “I’m not going to let those people take over my town,” (referring to the threats of mob violence in the streets) which settled the Gazette stance.^[5]

Faubus called out an armed detachment of the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School, ostensibly to quell mob violence. The guardsmen turned away the Little Rock Nine as they tried to enter the school. Ashmore and the Gazette answered vehemently with the front-page editorial “The Crisis Mr. Faubus Made” on September 4, 1957, taking the argument beyond segregation versus integration to the supremacy of the federal government in all matters of law. As the days and weeks wore on, the Gazette covered all the developments of the ongoing crisis.^[5]

The Gazette’s stance for law and order cost the newspaper and the Heiskell family millions of dollars in advertising and circulation losses. Circulation dropped from 100,000 to 83,000 in a matter of weeks, and Ashmore and other Gazette employees, along with the perceived integrationists, were threatened with violence. However, in May 1958, the Gazette won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its coverage of the Central High story. Ashmore won the Pulitzer for distinguished editorial writing. In October of that year, the Gazette also won the Freedom Award, presented yearly to individuals or groups who had significantly aided the cause of freedom.^[5]

In the aftermath of the Central High crisis, the Gazette reigned as one of the great newspapers of the country. Many of its reporters and editors moved on to other major publications such as the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, the New Yorker, the New York Herald Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune. The Gazette was able to recruit new talent from a national pool and eventually regained its circulation lead over the Democrat. In 1972, Heiskell died after having led the Gazette for seventy years.^[5]

[edit] The last days of the Gazette

After a long newspaper war between the Democrat and the Gazette, the Gannett Company newspaper chain, which purchased the Arkansas Gazette in 1986, shut the paper down on Oct. 18, 1991, and sold its assets — including its building and contents — to Little Rock Newspapers, Inc, now Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.,^[6] leaving over 1000 people without jobs.^[7]

A contributing factor to the buy-out had occurred five years earlier. In 1986, the Patterson Family (then owneres of the Gazette) lost their antitrust lawsuit against Walter Hussman (CEO of WEHCO Media, Inc., then publisher of the Democrat and current publisher of the Democrat-Gazette). The Patterson family alledged that the practice of selling advertising at unreasonably low costs was abusive behavior and anti competitive.^[7][8]

With the case settled allowing the Democrat to continue to undersell the Gazette, the Patterson family could not keep the paper running. On October 30th, 1986, the Patterson family sold the Gazette to the Gannet Company (the publishers of USA Today).^[8]

Gannett brought in a steady stream of company executives who tried to revamp the Gazette with color photographs, jazzier stories, and more emphasis on soft news and features. Readers took umbrage at many of the changes. Hussman and the Democrat continued to use their advantage of being the locally owned product; Gannett had stockholders to answer to; Hussman answered only to his family.^[5]

Gannett also lost the Gazette'ss biggest advertiser, Dillard’s, when Hussman proved to William Dillard that, under Gannett, smaller advertisers were given lower rates than those given to Dillard’s. Dillard was already angry with the Gazette over a prominent story that reflected poorly on his grandson as well as a front-page story about a dispute between the company and its accounting firm which resulted in Dillard's pulled its advertising. Gannett executives’ attempts to recover the account were thwarted with Hussman's proof of lower rates.^[5]

Eventually, Gannet's attempts to compete with the rates of the Democrat resulted in substantial financial losses and eventually, the corporation was either unable or unwilling to deplete Hussman's resources.^[7] All of these factors combined to ensure an end for the 171 year old Gazette.^[7]

Hussman and the Gannett Co. did not allow Gazette staffers to write a farewell edition for the newspaper,^[7] but several hundred people did gather at a candlelight vigil for the Gazette the night of October 18th, 1991 when the "Old Gray Lady" (a local nickname for the publication) shut down. Then Lt. Governor Jim Guy Tucker and former Governor Sid McMath were among the speakers. The newspaper that resulted from the buy out began publishing as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on October 19th, 1991.^[6] The vigil was not covered.^[7]

[edit] Post Gazette years

In 1992, the Gazette Building was used as the headquarters for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign.^[9] Upon Clinton's defeat of George H.W. Bush, there was a victory celebration at the nearby Old State House, which also served as the site of his initial campaign announcement.

As of June, 2008, the Gazette Building is being renovated in order to house a new charter school called E-STEM. The campus will contain an elementary, middle, and high school. E-STEM derives it's name from it's stated focus which will be "the student of the economics related to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."^[10]

In anticipation of the transfer of ownership to the charter school, Kate Askew, a local antique bookseller, was commissioned to clean out the basement of the Gazette Building and catalogue the contents therein. Many items of historical value were discovered.^[6]

A few of the finds from the endeavor included: photo negatives from the 1957 desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School, in boxes with thousands of other negatives from 1956-64; photographs of various Gazette employees, 1908-50, that had been framed and hung in the newspaper’s press room; a 1908 stenciling done during the building’s construction on the wall and ceiling of a "lost room" above the first floor; a safe containing 18 vertical drawers filled with Gazette documents, 1889-1975; a large plaque denoting the home of William E. Woodruff, the Gazette's founder; A scholarly collection of books wrapped in copies of the Gazette dated from January 1973, one month after editor J. N. Heiskell died at age 100; and a composing table on wheels used to set a page worth of metal type, with oil cans still sitting on top.^[6]

[edit] Architecture

The west (pictured) and south entrances are marked by segmental-arched doorways supported by Ionic-capital columns of marble.^[1]

The Gazette Building is a three-story structure of reinforced concrete with terra-cotta decorative effect. The building is almost square, measuring 140 feet by 150 feet. The floor space of the building is 15,660 square feet and covers a quarter of one city block. The building has a flat roof and projecting cornice. The most significant feature of the building is the exterior embellishment. Terra-cotta relief ornamentation exhibits the influence of Louis H. Sullivan in its floral and fruit design.^[1]

At the time of its construction, the Gazette Building was recognized as the finest newspaper buildings in the South. In 1908 it was constructed of the most fire-resistant and durable materials available. Seven thousand barrels of concrete were used in its construction.^[1]

A narrow band of terra-cotta fret-work surrounds the west and south elevations between the first and second stories. Almost all of the decorative features are located above this line on the second and third story levels. Two-story, three sided bays mark these two top stories. The spaces between the second and third story windows on the bays feature terra-cotta fruit clusters. Miniature engaged Doric-capital columns separate the three windows on each bay. Large engaged fluted Ionic-capital columns separate the bays. The frieze features wide scroll brackets above each of the Ionic columns. Bas-relief ornamentation of terra-cotta is located under the coping of the roof, above gouged patterns. Terra-cotta lion heads are found on the cornice above each of the brackets. Leaf-like decorations of terra-cotta project above the cornice.^[1]

Interiors harmonize with the exterior of the building. Floors in the first-floor corridors are of white tile. The walls are lined with Italian marble wainscotting. Extensive modernizing for business purposes has altered the interiors. Alterations to the exterior focus on the first floor windows, which have been only slightly modified. The building has been well preserved and is in excellent condition.^[1]

The Gazette Building was designed by architect George Richard Mann. Mann also had a role in designing many of the city's landmark structures including the Southern Trust Building, the Bank of Commerce, the State Bank Building (later called the Boyle Building, the Gus Blass Department Store, the addition to the Pulaski County Courthouse, and the Arkansas State Capitol.^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

October 18, 1991: The day the 'Old Gray Lady' closed her doors
Arkansas Gazette: "The Silence is Haunting" (reminiscenses of former journalists) (part 1) (part 2)
The Crisis Mr. Faubus Made (Gazette editorial about Little Rock's desegregation crisis by Henry Ashmore)

{{Registered Historic Places}} [[Category:Pulaski County, Arkansas]] [[Category:Little Rock, Arkansas]] [[Category:Registered Historic Places in Arkansas]] [[Category:History of Arkansas]]