Richard Hyatt: Always the 12th Street Rag

It will always be the 12th Street Rag.

Though the Ledger-Enquirer plans to move to Broadway in 2015 that old nickname won't go away and neither will decades of history.

If that building at 17 West 12th St. could talk, it could tell some tales.

It could talk about people clustering on the street waiting for copy boys to poke their heads out the second floor cupola and give updates on the World Series, heavyweight fights or presidential elections.

It would recite a diverse list of luminaries that visited including Gov. George Wallace and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

They came on separate occasions, and when they arrived, employees treated them like rock stars.

It would remember the rhythm of election nights and the magic of presses rushing out extra editions to mark historic events such as the end of a world war, the death of Bear Bryant or the tragic morning that rogue pilots crashed into the World Trade Center.

It would recall gifted writers who worked there on their way to careers as editors, screenwriters and novelists.

It would remember two Pulitzer Prizes and scores of other awards.

It would remember the surge of a press that signaled a daily miracle and an army of schoolboy carriers that delivered newspapers to doorsteps all over town.

There was a newspaper here before the city was chartered, and it has been published on 12th Street since 1930 when the morning Enquirer and afternoon Ledger came together under one owner in one building.

That was a landmark event and so was the merger of two papers into one morning edition in 1988. Changes of ownership made headlines. Now comes word that the paper plans to move to the Hardaway Building at 945 Broadway.

Memories will be packed up and moved, but the newspaper's new home also has history.

It was there in 1909 where the business elite finalized plans for the city's first country club. Once checks were written, leaders piled into cars and drove to Cherokee Avenue to inspect the proposed site.

In that building engineers planned military camps during World War I and designed stunning bridges that spanned waterways around the country.

It was there where organizers conceived colorful foxhunts and the splendor of the original Columbus Steeplechase.

Now comes the 12th Street rag, ready to build bridges of its own.

Richard Hyatt is an independent correspondent. Reach him at hyatt31906@knology.net.

This story was originally published October 18, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Richard Hyatt: Always the 12th Street Rag."