Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1934. Journal opens new headquarters on Fountain Street

Through the hardship of the Great Depression, a large construction project in downtown Providence "accounted for a large share of what recent activity there has been for local building trades in the commercial field," The Journal said in a promotional advertisement in July 1934.

The project was the building of a new headquarters for The Providence Journal. The paper was moving again, into its seventh location since beginning daily publication in 1829.

The new headquarters was surrounded by Fountain, Mathewson, Union and Sabin Streets, and is still home to The Journal in 2004.

"Construction of the new Journal building during an unprecedented depression has stirred widespread interest," the paper wrote. ". . . Most strikingly to the public eye, it stands as an unmistakable expression of faith in the maintenance of Rhode Island's industrial leadership -- and hence, of increasing newspaper requirements."

Stephen O. Metcalf, president of the company, gave a dedication speech on May 10, 1934, when the building's cornerstone was laid. Sealed in the cornerstone was a copy of Metcalf's speech, copies of The Sunday Journal, the daily Journal and The Evening Bulletin, a Journal 100th anniversary special edition published in 1929, a Journal history book published in 1904, statements about the builders and architect of the new headquarters, and a list of officers, stockholders and directors.

The Journal's front page on July 30, 1934, showed a picture of the new building's front entrance, under the headline: "Good Morning!" It was the first issue published Fountain Street.

The official switch from the old location, a few blocks away at Westminster and Eddy streets, had come the day before at 1:08 p.m., when the old building's telephone system was cut off at the instant the new building's phones were turned on.

"Soon afterward," The Journal reported, "the news of the world was pouring into the sound-proof room on the third floor where telegraph and teletype machines began to chatter about developments in every part of the globe."