916 Main Historic Structure Assessment

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916 Main Street Hartronft Associates, pc Historic Structure Assessment October 10, 2023 According to the Conarroes's son, Doug (personal correspondence, 04-03-2023): We didn't print the paper at 916 Main Street but there was a smallish (VW bug size) Heidelberg job printing press that Percy used to print business cards and menus for local restaurants. It was supplemental income when advertising slumped every January and February. Until about 1974 the newspaper was printed offsite using lead type. A Linotype machine at our facility, also the size and weight of a small VW, cast lead into sentences, and those "lines of type" were stacked to create the typical news story column. It was a hazardous machine and often spewed hot lead onto the calf of operators.... Those columns of lead type were assembled into a page form, which was a steel frame to hold all the lead type. The completed page, held in the page forms, were transported to the Westminster Window where they printed the newspaper. We reinforced the floors to accommodate the job printing press and the Linotype, but sold them for scrap in about 1976. In 1975 we converted to offset printing which involved Compugraphic computers that spit out the news columns on photographic paper. Those columns where then glued to larger newspaper size piece of paper, then the larger page was photographed using a process camera in our facility. The image (a negative) of the page was then transported to the Intermountain Color in Boulder where they created offset plates — thin tin plates that were photo -sensitive — to print the newspaper. In the early 1980s we converted to Macintosh computers which made the page -building process easier. Those pages were transferred to offset plates at Intermountain Color. We later printed at the Longmont Times -Call. They bought the paper in 1997. Paper was printed and distributed Wednesday to closely follow city council meeting schedules, so Tuesdays were production days and were very long days for the whole family.... When we bought 916 Main Street we had to patch numerous holes left after the sheriff's March 11, 1966 pool hall gambling raid. The sheriff used sledge hammers to break through walls and doors. Not sure what he was looking for, but the damage was extensive. The pool hall was raided several times after it was built. There were persistent rumors that gamblers had left a stash of cash in our crawlspace, but a thorough sweep by local detectorist Jack Stout found nothing. The Prohibition tunnel myth was also persistent that the gamblers escaped using a tunnel under the building. We couldn't find any evidence of that. The following photos show 916 Main when it was the Louisville Times building. 1The following image from 1978 is two photos taken separately and pieced together. 920 Main on the left housed Joe's Fruit Shop, which was the Italian grocery store of John Madonna's brother-in-law, Joe D'Amato. Page 18 of 51