As iconic as the Caller-Times building is to us today, it’s actually been the site of much change. The Caller-Times, formed upon the merger of two papers in 1929, hasn’t always called that site home. Each paper, the Caller and the Times, had its own offices. They consolidated during the merger to an office in the 300 block of N. Chaparral, across from today’s Executive Surf Club.
In October 1935, the entire operation, including a 36-ton printing press, was moved to the Lower Broadway site from offices six blocks away, at 405 Mesquite. The building was smaller than the one we know today, running 50 feet on Lower Broadway and 114 down Twigg. After expansions in 1948, 1952, 1958, 1984 and 1994, the building takes up the entire block at 81,893 square feet.
The latest renovation’s highlight was a $10 million Goss Metroliner offset press, used to print the Caller-Times and several other regional newspapers in-house. The press printed the daily news on the four-story-tall press for 30 years, until its last run Mar. 1, 2023. Through numerous ownership changes in the time since that renovation, the building has stood relatively unchanged at 820 N. Lower Broadway — until a fresh paint job and the addition of a brightly colored mural, “Endless Sunset: The Color of Our City” by Sandra Gonzalez, in 2016.
Now, as the Caller-Times enters an era without its printing business, more change is coming to the paper … and to the building it called home for nearly 90 years.
