800 Spruce 2013 St Historic Survey

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Resource Number: 5BL925 Temporary Resource Number: 157508425002 The Louisville Times newspaper typically was published once or sometimes twice a week beginning in 1913. It was operated by Pearl Conley beginning in 1917 in offices on Pine Street that were previously used for the short-lived Louisville News newspaper. Conley stopped operating the Louisville Times in 1932. It is in the 1932 Louisville directory that Wesley S. and Harriett N. Withers are listed as being the new owners/managers of the Louisville Times, although their address that year is given as an address on Front Street and not this address. Online Boulder County property records show that Louis Gutfelder sold the parcel at 800/804 Spruce to Wesley S. Withers in 1934. The 1936 and 1940 directories have a listing for Wesley and Harriett Withers, and the Louisville Times office is listed as being located at Spruce and La Farge. Wesley S. and Harriett N. Withers were both from Wisconsin, Wesley having been born in 1876 and Harriett in 1874. Wesley S. Withers had a business in Boulder, Colorado prior to moving to Louisville to run a newspaper. According to the catalog records of Boulder's Carnegie Branch Library for Local History, Withers owned the Withers Garage & Tire Station on the southeast corner of 12 and Walnut in Boulder as well as the Withers Ford Garage & Tire Station at 1515 Pearl in Boulder (probably at different times). The couple lived at 918 Pleasant in Boulder. It is believed that they may not have had a newspaper background when they took over the Times. They were in their fifties at the time. Unfortunately, fewer than thirty out of over 1,000 of the newspapers that Withers or his predecessor Pearl Conley wrote and worked on are known to have survived. It is believed that a later owner of the Times disposed of nearly all of the past issues of the Times that had accumulated. To this day, the new corporate entity that owns the Louisville Times is understood to have issues dating back to only 1942. The Louisville Historical Museum has in its collection some issues dating from earlier years. According to an interview with Lois Chiolino Tesone, a previous resident of 729 La Farge (5BL7981), the Withers' granddaughter, Mercedes Horton, was about nine years old when the Withers couple moved to Spruce and La Farge in the early 1930s. Mercedes would sometimes visit her grandparents in their home at 800 Spruce and would play with other children in the neighborhood. Lois Chiolino Tesone stated that she remembered playing in the print shop (804 Spruce) where there were huge round presses. Lois Chiolino Tesone also recalled that the school newspaper of Louisville High School, The Lookout, which she worked on, was printed in the print shop side of the building. A later owner of the Times donated to the Louisville Historical Museum a 1935 typed directory of Louisville residents that was used by the Times with notations about who subscribed to the paper and who had passed away. It was obtained from the Louisville Times offices. Since it is from 1935, it dates from the time that the Times was owned by the Withers couple. It is used extensively as a research resource at the Museum. The 2000 survey of this property indicated that the Withers published the newspaper at this location through most of the 1940s, but it has been ascertained that they only published it until 1941. Wesley and Harriett Withers do appear to have owned this property until 1958 when they sold it to Albert and Elizabeth Varra. The Withers do not appear in Louisville directories after 1940 and it is believed that they returned to Boulder at that time. In 1941, Harry Naeter is listed in the Louisville directory as editor of the Times, presumably at this location because this is the building that still held the printing presses. Beginning in 1942, Art and Della Hobson are listed in Louisville directories as living and working at 800/804 Spruce. They were to own and operate the Louisville Times from 1942 to 1965, and are remembered as being involved members of the community. In the 1940s, Della joined the Saturday Study Club, a women's organization that ran the library in Louisville. Art Hobson is remembered for his enthusiastic coverage of Louisville High School sports. The Hobsons had married in Kansas in 1927. According to Della Hobson's obituary, she was an editor of newspapers in Kansas before the couple moved to Louisville. Directories indicate that the Hobsons lived and worked at 800/804 Spruce from 1942 to about 1955. It is the 1955 directory that first lists them as having their home at another location in Louisville, and shows that the Louisville Times offices had moved to 912 Main Street. Both Wesley S. and Harriett Withers passed away in the 1960s; Della Hobson died in 1971 and Art Hobson died in 1973. Sources of information 3