Saginaw News Building

In 1918 a group of investors, led by George G. and Ralph H. Booth of Booth Newspapers, met and merged the Saginaw Evening News and the Courier-Herald into the Saginaw News Courier. The paper was renamed the Saginaw Daily News in 1927 and the Saginaw News on July 24, 1936. By the mid-1950s the company had outgrown its building at the corner of Federal and South Washington Avenues. Work began on this building, adjacent to the old structure, on August 19, 1958. The new headquarters was occupied by 1960, at which time the old building was demolished. The new structure housed the latest in printing equipment, allowing the newspaper to meet its daily circulation of 52,500 with the work of 218 employees and 535 paper carriers in 1960. Celebrated as “Designed, Built by Saginaw People,” this 1958 building was largely constructed by local firms, including Spence Brothers, which served as general contractor. The building’s architects, Robert B. Frantz and James A. Spence Sr., operated their firm out of Saginaw from 1925 to 1960. They had both studied at the University of Michigan under Emil Lorch, one of the founders of the university’s School of Architecture. They designed this building in the International style with heavy use of glass, marble, and granite. The concrete foundation, built to support the massive printing presses, is more than three feet thick. The Saginaw News published daily from this building until publication was reduced to three days a week in 2009. The company moved out the following year.