American Building

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As opposed to the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore News-American was an afternoon newspaper targeted to working class and blue-collar districts. One of the newspaper’s many editors was John L. Carey. He was deeply interested in the question of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War and felt that the two races could never live in peace and offered up the solution to re-settle all enslaved people in Africa. The Baltimore News-American would survive for two hundred years, until its final issue on May 27th, 1986.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the buildings of the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore-News American faced each other at the intersection of South Gay Street and East Baltimore Street. It was one of the most bustling areas of the city, filled with newsies passing out papers and bulletin boards posting the latest news. During elections, the intersection would be packed with massive crowds of people, all waiting to hear the results.

The original Baltimore News-American Building was destroyed by the Great Baltimore Fire and a new towering office, designed by Baltimore native Louis Levi, was built in 1905 by the George A. Fuller Company. The main contractor for the News American Building was Paul Starrett who later went on to be take a leading role in the erection of the Empire State Building.