Then and now: The old P-I building

Here’s a recent picture of the City University headquarters at Sixth Avenue and Wall Street. The building was completed in late 1948 as the home of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. City University of Seattle, which was ranked among the top 50 online bachelor's degree programs by U.S. News and World Report, had its grand opening there Jan. 25, 2013.Courtesy City University

The auditorium at the Sixth and Wall building was used for “cooking schools, fashion shows, carrier meetings and other promotional activities of The Post-Intelligencer,” according to a 1949 article. “It will also be made available for meetings of civic groups, such as women’s and community clubs interested in various phases of the city’s welfare and to advertisers for sales meetings, etc. The room will seat more than 300 persons, has a stage and a motion picture projection booth at the rear, equipped to project any size film.”seattlepi.com

The caption for this image, which was taken Nov. 19, 1947, says “a piece of black granite, first slab of 800 running feet of black granite base, was laid at the northwest corner of the new Post-Intelligencer building at 5th Ave. and Wall St. yesterday by John J. Callahan, business manager. Looking on are, left to right, Howard S. Wright, John J. Shea. Joseph Geddes and Henry Bittman.” Wright later built the Space Needle for the 1962 World’s Fair.seattlepi.com

If you look closely at the print, the white part of the letters were painted on top of what appears to be a black marker or paint – a practice that was pretty common at major newspapers in the 1940s that wouldn't be accepted now. You can notice this by where part of the V has smeared off. Though there is a chance that the paint on the print was actually enhancing what was already there, that the marking was added later, or that the piece of granite was moved or covered during a remodel.seattlepi.com

In this picture form Jan. 4, 1949, which was never published in the newspaper, reporter Jack Jarvis tells KRSC-TV about typesetters at the new P-I building. KRSC was around only briefly – starting with the West Seattle vs. Wenatchee Turkey Day game at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 25, 1948 and switching to call letters KING after a May 1949 sale. KING/5 is Seattle’s oldest running TV stations, and this is one of the few images of a KRSC crew at work in Seattle. Jack Jarvis, who was known for his quirky business cards, also was a reader-favorite for his daily dispatches from the 1962 World's Fair.seattlepi.com

It’s not clear exactly where the previous picture was taken – either in what’s now the building’s first floor or the parking garage – because of several remodels and poor notes on the back of the original image. But some of the bricks seen in back of P-I reporter Jack Jarvis can still be seen in the City University parking garage, shown here. Many of the other places where the bricks were seen on the first floor and basement area have been covered in remodels. This doesn’t appear to be the same place, but gives a sense of what’s still there.Casey McNerthney/seattlepi.com

This picture, taken Oct. 3, 1947, shows workers that raised the flag after completion on the Post-Intelligencer building, which is now headquarters for City University of Seattle. They're atop the 60-foot tower that eventually held the P-I globe. At left is E.C. Hightower, job acccountant with Howard S. Wright and Company, and George Hamner, general carpenter foreman. Marks on the image were made for its run in the following day's newspaper. Note the Igloo tavern across the street and Memorial Stadium on the left, which was dedicated that year.seattlepi.com

In this picture from Jan. 1949, Hiram Gale, seated, stands with the old Ramage hand press used to print the Daily Intelligencer. At the time, Gale was 102-years-old and Seattle’s only Civil War survivor. The press, which P-I notes state was made 140 years before this image was taken, is now at the Museum of History and Industry. Also picture, from left, are Ike Ransley, P-I pressman, Gale’s son, Edgar, Gale, and Kenneth Rudeen, a P-I printing apprentice. Marks on the photo were made by a P-I editor.seattlepi.com

On Friday, City University invited the public to see its new campus and global headquarters at Sixth and Wall. Seattle's mayor spoke about how the school would help enhance the quality of life here. The city's most renowned chef, Tom Douglas, provided appetizers. Hundreds toured the new facility, eager to get a glimpse.

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It was a lot like what took place in that same building 64 years earlier.

The Sixth and Wall building was commissioned by the Hearst Corporation as home for the Post-Intelligencer. The presses ran where the giant atrium is now and areas that are now classrooms and offices were once home to reporters' desks.

In early January 1949, the P-I invited the public to take a look. Seattle's mayor spoke, the event was broadcast live on KOMO, there was fancy food and hundreds came to see the place.

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The P-I was printed there for more than three decades. But in 1981, the P-I and Seattle Times announced an agreement to form a joint operating agreement under the federal Newspaper Preservation Act.

In 1983, The Times began printing both newspapers and the P-I didn't need the massive space it had built years earlier. In 1986, the newspaper moved into a new Sabey Corporation-owned building at 101 Elliott Ave. W. Sabey, which now also owns the old Sixth and Wall building, has done several remodels to that space in the years since.

The good thing about having a newspaper in the Sixth and Wall building is there are plenty of photos in the P-I archive documenting the construction and what life was like inside – at least when the cameras were there.

But because the space has been upgraded so much, it's also a little tough to tell exactly where some of the 1940s photos were taken.

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A library space for City University, which was ranked among the top 50 online bachelor's degree programs by U.S. News and World Report, is in part of the area where the press operators and composers worked. Classrooms are where stacks of newspapers used to be piled.

With kind help from City University Communications Director Tarsi Hall, we took current photos of the building to compare with the P-I headquarters when it opened. There are other pictures that we couldn't place exactly, and those are included at the end of the gallery.

Click here for more information about the City University of Seattle's grand opening.

Casey McNerthney can be reached at 206-448-8220 or at caseymcnerthney@seattlepi.com. Follow Casey on Twitter at twitter.com/mcnerthney.