As we enter a new decade – The Blade’s 15th – we wanted to take a look back at our own history. The first Toledo Blade was stamped out of a printing press on Saturday morning, Dec. 19, 1835. Every day since it has been weaving the rich tapestry of record for Toledo and its region's history, from the Toledo War through the Industrial Revolution to the Data Revolution.
But it was in the roaring 1920s that The Blade moved into its current home at 541 N. Superior St. The building was constructed in the middle of that decade, and on May 1, 1927 it was dedicated with a “golden key” by the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge.
That president famously once said, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”
When The Blade ceased printing the newspaper in its downtown headquarters on Sept. 7, 2014, it was in that vein of continuing to prosper in the world as a business delivering news to its community by the necessary means.
The Blade newspaper is now printed and packaged about 80 miles away at the Detroit Media Partnership facility in Sterling Heights, Mich. But the reporters, photographers, editors, producers, managers, sales staff, and administrative staff who steward the content for those pages and screens for toledoblade.com, Blade NewsSlide, and the eBlade all continue to work at 541 N. Superior St., where the edifice of the grand grey castle castle remains strikingly intact from the day it was built.
Purchase commemorative print of The Blade Building’s construction here.
Go to thebladevault.com/memories to purchase more historical photos taken by our award-winning staff of photographers, past and present, or to purchase combinations of stories and photos.
First Published January 13, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
