The Pottstown News

The Pottstown News (HMFCN)

Location: Pottstown, PA 19464 Montgomery County
Buy Pennsylvania State flags at Flagstore.com!
Country: United States of America
Buy United States of America flags at Flagstore.com!

N 40° 14.784', W 75° 39.024'

  • 0 likes
  • 0 check ins
  • 0 favorites
  • 487 views
Inscription

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
Details
HM NumberHMFCN
Tags
Year Placed2002
Placed ByPottstown 250th Anniversary Committee
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Saturday, October 4th, 2014 at 7:45am PDT -07:00
Pictures
Sorry, but we don't have a picture of this historical marker yet. If you have a picture, please share it with us. It's simple to do. 1) Become a member. 2) Adopt this historical marker listing. 3) Upload the picture.
Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18T E 444681 N 4455308
Decimal Degrees40.24640000, -75.65040000
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 40° 14.784', W 75° 39.024'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds40° 14' 47.04" N, 75° 39' 1.44" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)484, 610
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 37-49 N Hanover St, Pottstown PA 19464, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

Is this marker missing? Are the coordinates wrong? Do you have additional information that you would like to share with us? If so, check in.

Check Ins  check in   |    all

Have you seen this marker? If so, check in and tell us about it.

Comments 0 comments

Maintenance Issues
  1. Is this marker part of a series?
  2. What historical period does the marker represent?
  3. What historical place does the marker represent?
  4. What type of marker is it?
  5. What class is the marker?
  6. What style is the marker?
  7. Does the marker have a number?
  8. This marker needs at least one picture.
  9. Can this marker be seen from the road?
  10. Is the marker in the median?