Workers Uncover Century-Old Newspaper in Curtis Building

During the demolition of the former Curtis department store building on Friday, an unexpected historic find lent a bit of magic to an otherwise destructive situation. Vance Farmer was on the scene observing the demolition in his capacity as Interim Fire Chief. He spotted the newspaper as the back wall came crashing down during demolition. 

“When the back wall fell, a concrete block exploded, and I saw the paper there. I said, ‘Stop! Stop!’ and ran to get it,” Farmer said.

 

The 1921 edition of the St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat is remarkably well preserved for a few sheets of newsprint that someone apparently shoved in a wall 100 years ago. The folded pages were evidently discarded after reading in two sections. 

 

The edition is dated “Tuesday Morning, March 8, 1921.” Interestingly enough, the paper was found on March 5, 2021, almost 100 years to the day.

 

“It’s like it was meant to be,” Farmer said. 

 

The contents of the paper offer a glimpse into the world and Missouri in the ‘20s. The print is surprisingly small, as if there was a great deal of news to fit on finite sheets of paper. Some of the stories are funny, like the Chillicothe man who wanted a rebate on a dog licensing fee because his dog had only three legs. Some are disquieting, like the routine coverage of the Franco-Turkish War raging in Europe. 

 

Advertisements for long-closed businesses festoon the pages, and the advertised prices do not seem real. For example, Mother Goose Shop’s Special Luncheon was offered for only 75 cents. Suit pants by Famous Barr are advertised at 33 cents. 

 

Gardner Advertising Company sponsored a sprawling quarter page ad titled, “How much ‘off’ is business?” which attempts to convince the reader that the American economy was healthy despite “bad times.” In a little more than eight years, the Black Friday stock market crash would kick-start the Great Depression, and yet someone felt the need to buy an expensive feel-good ad in March 1921, during what are now known as The Roaring Twenties. 

Brown and brittle with age, this discarded bit of daily life caps the story of a historic Willow Springs building with a mystery-glossed mundanity, providing continuity from life as it was then to how it very much remains today.