St. Louis Post-Dispatch Printing Building

Constructed from 1916 to 1917, this historic building was the home of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a prominent St. Louis newspaper founded by Joseph Pulitzer in 1878. This building was the third home for the Post-Dispatch and features the Beaux-Arts Classical architectural style characterized by the building's Corinthian colonnade and recessed arches. The newspaper became known for its willingness to report on potentially controversial topics, including criticizing some prominent citizens and politicians. Under three generations of Pulitzers, the paper helped to bring down the Pendergast Machine, openly criticized Harry S. Truman, and was among the first to oppose the Vietnam War.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was founded by Joseph Pulitzer in 1878. Pulitzer, was a Hungarian immigrant born in Mako, Hungary on April 10th, 1847. He’d attempted to enlist in the army several times, but his poor eyesight and frail health barred him from service until he was discovered in Hungary by an American bounty recruiter for the Union Army. Pulitzer agreed to substitute for a wealthy draftee in the American Civil War. According to legend, Pulitzer jumped ship at Boston and swam ashore. He enlisted in the Lincoln Cavalry for one year, keeping the enlistment bounty for himself. Eventually, Pulitzer was able to work his way to St. Louis where he worked odd jobs and utilized St. Louis’ Mercantile Library to learn English. It was at the Mercantile Library where Pulitzer met the two editors of Westliche Post, a prominent St. Louis-based German newspaper. Pulitzer ended up working for Westliche Post for ten years, earning himself a reputation as a newsman.

In 1878, Pulitzer purchased the bankrupt Evening Dispatch for $2,500, which he merged with another paper called Evening Post. The paper became known as Post and Dispatch, located at 111 North Fifth Street. The paper was first printed on December 12th, 1878. The same year, Joseph Pulitzer married a prominent Washington woman named Kate Davis, and with it, a connection to high society. The following year, the paper’s name changed to St. Louis Post-Dispatch and moved to its second location at 513-15 Market Street. On its first day of circulation, the Post-Dispatch circulated 4,020 copies via wheelbarrow. The paper pledged that it “will serve no party but the people [...] will oppose all frauds and shams [...] will advocate principles and ideas rather than prejudices and partisanship.” The Post-Dispatch quickly earned a reputation for reporting on controversial topics that other papers avoided. The paper was instrumental in bringing down Thomas J. Pendergast, the leader of a political organization known as “Pendergast Machine” who was imprisoned following several political scandals including voter fraud, an insurance scam, and tax evasion. At the insistence of the Post-Dispatch, the Teapot Dome scandal, considered the worst scandal in American history until Watergate, was reopened. In 1935, the paper exposed voter fraud by proving that “ghost voters” had been used to stuff ballot boxes – earning the paper the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The Post-Dispatch has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes, an award set up by Joseph Pulitzer in his will.

After several years of serving as the Post-Dispatch’s editor, Joseph Pulitzer grew weary of the backlash his newspaper brought him. He was also becoming concerned for his son Ralph’s ill health. In 1883, he purchased the New York World and made the decision to move his family to New York City, leaving the paper in his son Joseph Pulitzer II’s hands. During this period, the Post-Dispatch moved locations twice more. In 1888, it was relocated to a building at 513 Olive Street and in 1902 it moved to North Broadway. The elder Joseph Pulitzer’s health began declining and he retired in 1907. The prominent journalist died in 1911 at age 64.After several years of serving as the Post-Dispatch’s editor, Joseph Pulitzer grew weary of the backlash his newspaper brought him. He was also becoming concerned for his son Ralph’s ill health. In 1883, he purchased the New York World and made the decision to move his family to New York City, leaving the paper in his son Joseph Pulitzer II’s hands. During this period, the Post-Dispatch moved locations twice more. In 1888, it was relocated to a building at 513 Olive Street and in 1902 it moved to North Broadway. The elder Joseph Pulitzer’s health began declining and he retired in 1907. The prominent journalist died in 1911 at age 64.

Now fully under Joseph Pulitzer II’s leadership, the Post-Dispatch moved locations a final time in 1917 to 1139 Olive Street. This building was constructed specifically for the Post-Dispatch in 1916-1917. It was designed by George D. Barnett of the St. Louis architectural firm Barnett, Haynes & Barnett. It is constructed out of gray limestone in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, a style heavily influenced by Greek and Roman architecture that was popular in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. This style is evident in its construction through the Corinthian colonnade and recessed arches at the top of the building as well as the “entablature center bays at the base” which include arches featuring carved stone rosettes. In 1965, a curtain wall “which covered the primary south and west elevations as well as one bay on the east elevation” was added to the building in an attempt to modernize it. The curtain wall was removed in 1999, with most of the damage left behind affecting the ornamentation above the sixth floor and the cornice above the eighth floor. The lower portions of the two-story Ionic columns at the base of the building were lost to damage as well. The interior of the building has been heavily renovated and does not resemble its original design. This building is the only surviving one of the five buildings that the Post-Dispatch occupied.

Pulitzer II continued to uphold the paper’s reputation for controversial journalism. Following World War II, Pulitzer II toured concentration camps and reported on what he found there – providing evidence for Americans who doubted that the Holocaust happened, believing it was propaganda. Pulitzer II showed the Army Signal Corps’ motion pictures of the concentration camps at Kiel Auditorium and commissioned 25 life-sized murals of photos taken at the camps. These photos were displayed in the 1941 Printing Building annex to the Post-Dispatch building.

While Pulitzer II was editor, the newspaper expanded into radio. In 1922, their station KSD began broadcasting from the second floor of the Post-Dispatch building. Four years later, KSD became one of the first five stations to form NBC, providing the station with access to national broadcasting. KSD had several successful shows, including “The Land We Live In” and “Highway Patrol – shows which continued to enjoy success even after television gained popularity in the 1950s. In 1979, NBC traded the station for two stations in Arizona. The Post-Dispatch found its place in television in 1947 when KSDK was founded, the “country’s first fully equipped post-war television station.” KSDK joined NBC and earned a positive national reputation. The broadcasting facilities had been moved to the 1111 Olive annex of the Post-Dispatch’s Printing Building but moved again when Pulitzer II’s son, Joseph Pulitzer Jr., moved it to the Globe-Democrat’s former building at North Tucker it 1959. KSDK has remained at this location since then.

Following Joseph Pulitzer II’s death in 1955, his son Joseph Pulitzer Jr. took over the newspaper. Pulitzer Jr. pledged that "[The Post-Dispatch] will not only report the day's news but illuminate dark places, and, with a deep sense of responsibility, interpret these troublous times,” promising to continue the work his grandfather began. The Post-Dispatch became one of the first papers to publicly oppose the Vietnam War and one of the first to publish excerpts from the Pentagon papers. Under Pulitzer Jr.’s leadership, and inspired by his love of art, the paper was also one of the first to be printed in color. In 1986, Pulitzer Jr. decided to focus primarily on the Pulitzer Publishing Company, giving up his positions with the Post-Dispatch. Circulation for the daily newspaper and Sunday paper decreased in the 2010s. As of 2016, the daily paper circulates 98,014 copies and the Sunday paper circulates 157,543. The newspaper began its first website in 1996, which exists today as stltoday.com. Despite the declining circulation of the papers, the website continues to see high traffic with 67 million page views per month as of 2017.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, MO State Parks. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/STL%20Post-Dispatch%20Bldg.pdf.

Topping, Seymour. Biography of Joseph Pulitzer, The Pulitzer Prizes. 2013. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://www.pulitzer.org/page/biography-joseph-pulitzer.

Joseph Pulitzer, SHSMO Historic Missourians. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/joseph-pulitzer.

Happy Anniversary to us: Take a Journey Through History with the Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Today. December 12th, 2022. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/happy-anniversary-to-us-take-a-journey-through-history-with-the-post-dispatch/collection_ca197e6f-b80a-552c-bd89-564d42efe172.html.

Thomas J. Pendergast, SHSMO Famous Missourians. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/thomas-pendergast.

Malone, Roy. The Pulitzer Family: Joseph Pulitzer's Mission, St. Louis Magazine. August 24th, 2015. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://www.stlmag.com/news/the-pulitzer-family-the-mission-by-joseph-pulitzer/.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch named Lee’s 2017 Enterprise of the Year, Lee Enterprises. December 8th, 2017. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://lee.net/news/st-louis-post-dispatch-named-lee-s-enterprise-of-the/article_8568c096-dc3b-11e7-99c4-438f190028f8.html.

Post-Dispatch Parent Makes 140M Acquisition, St. Louis Business Journal. January 29th, 2020. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2020/01/29/post-dispatch-parent-makes-140m-acquisition.html.

Check out the new STLtoday, St. Louis Today. January 19th, 2022. Accessed January 2nd, 2023. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/editors-desk/check-out-the-new-stltoday/article_600d9cac-74a5-11ec-9aaf-5fe92b728dae.html#:~:text=Our%20first%20platform%20began%20in,our%20first%20website%20in%201996..

Hevesi, Denise. "Joseph Pulitzer Jr. Is Dead at 80; Publisher Was Avid Art Collector." May 27th, 1993. .

BEAUX-ARTS, Chicago Architecture Center. Accessed January 3rd, 2023. https://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/architecture-dictionary/entry/beaux-arts/.