The 200 blocks of Monroe, Main (later Capitol Avenue) and Madison streets were burgeoning with print companies in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
In 1913, the Capital City News published at 223 Madison; The Chronicle Reporter, a weekly in Cedar City, the Democrat Tribune and The Missouri Volksfreund published from 217 E. Main St., and the Daily Post printed at 316 Madison St.
Neighbors of the Goshorn News Tribune Company, when it built its permanent location at 210 Monroe St. in 1931, included the Capitol City Water Company, Mrs. Berth Thurman, Thomas Antrobus and physician Joseph Summers.
Around the corner on Capitol Avenue was the Capital News, the United Press Bureau, the Tribune Printing Company, the Associated Press Bureau, and Missouri Farm Bureau News.
At its backdoor on Madison street in the 1920 was the Hugh Stephens Printing Plant.
Another block over, 222 Jefferson St. housed bureaus for the Kansas City Star, the Kansas City Journal, the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the St. Louis Times, the St. Louis Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
After combining the last of the newspapers under one ownership and moving into a modern building in 1931, 210 Monroe Street housed more than the Post Tribune, the Daily Capital News and the Tribune Printing Company. Space was leased to Gibbony Insurance Agency, United Press Association, lawyer Thomas J. Brown, lawyer Alan Ing, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the Girls Scouts of America.
By 1943, Jefferson City had a population greater than 20,700.
The water company site at 200 Monroe Street had become home to the Cole County War Price and Rationing Board.
When the News Tribune Company decided to build a new building for its advanced presses in the last decade, it did not take long to decide to leave the news and advertising operations in the heart of the government and business district.
210 Monroe Street stands in the same block where dozens of media outlets set up shop to tell the community's stories throughout Jefferson City's last century of growth.
The building is only blocks from the municipal, county and state government executive offices. The location is "indispensable" for reporters covering issues, actions and meetings of those public bodies.
But the location also is easily accessible to elected and community leaders. Long-time publisher and owner Betty Weldon never turned down a visitor.
After her death in 2007, a county official said "no longer will the problems of the day be worked out in her office