Historic Pottstown Walking Tour

In 1887, P. Elwood Baum purchased the newspaper that would eventually become the present day Mercury. At that time, Baum renamed The Chronicle, located at 18 1/2 N. Hanover St., The Pottstown Daily News. After Baum's death in 1892, Thomas Taylor took over the paper and in 1896, built The News Building at 17 N. Hanover directly across the street, where the paper would remain until 1926. In 1913, William L. Binder, president and general manager, renamed the paper one last time to The Pottstown News.

To expand its facilities, the paper purchased the Ashenfelter property on the southeast corner of Hanover and King Sts. in 1925. The first building on this corner lot was a small one-story frame structure which housed the "Pilot" firefighting apparatus owned by Pottstown and served as the borough lockup. The next owners, Jacob and Ephraim Hartranft, razed the frame building and built a twenty-room brick house on the lot. All 836 pieces of steel used in the construction of the present Mercury building were put up in sixteen days using a ninety-five foot mast anchored in the center of the basement. The structure is of concrete and buffed brick, with outside trimmings of Indianna [sic] limestone. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1925, and the building officially dedicated (to the paper's founder Thomas Taylor) on October 4, 1926; but the first paper was printed there on March 22, 1926. At that time there were 8,500 subscribers. Finally, in 1933; The Pottstown Mercury purchased the publication and property of the News.
— David R. Kerns

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Show me all markers in:  Pottstown, PA  |  Montgomery County  |  19464  |  Pennsylvania  |  United States of America

Weitzenkorn's Clothiers
St. Clair Mansion
The Security Trust Building
The Shuler House
Reading Passenger Station
The Potts Family Burial Ground
The Old Brick Church
First Iron Bridge
Site of Old Burial Ground
Philadelphia Steam Engine Fire Co. #1

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