H. & C.H. Denman Building (Farmington News) - East Columbia Historic District - Farmington, Missouri - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

"28 E. Columbia; Denman, H. & C.H. Building (Farmington News), ca. 1909

A two-story Late Victorian style two-part commercial block with a concrete foundation and brick walls. The upper facade is highly intact, and features a large ornamental arched window in the central bay, along with a wide limestone belt course along the tops of the arched windows. The building also has a corbeled brick cornice and there are inset panels with terra cotta molding below the second floor windows. The original storefront openings of the ground floor remain intact; they are currently filled with modern siding and small windows. The east side elevation, which faces South Jackson Street, is also highly ornamented, with detailing similar to that found on the upper facade. The rear door and window openings all have segmental arches, and most are intact - most of those on the first floor are filled in, those of the second floor have mostly early 2/2 windows, one is a newer 1/1...

The Farmington News was founded in 1883 by T. P. Pigg, who published it as a weekly until 1900, when he sold it to brothers Harry and Clint H. Denman. It appears that the Denmans built the building at 28 East Columbia specifically to serve as home of the newspaper. In the late 1910s, Harry Denman bought out his brother, and his wife later bought out another investor. Mr. and Mrs. Denman continued to run the paper at that location into the 1930s or beyond.  A history of the business which was written in the 1930s noted that the paper "was a pioneer in this section in the use of modern equipment."" The same article noted that they owned one of the first cylinder presses in southeast Missouri, as well as "the first standard typesetting machine to be placed in any printing office between St. Louis and Memphis." The newspaper was also recognized for high-quality reporting. In 1927, the News was named "one of the outstanding country newspapers in the United States", and placed on Prof. John Case's "mythical All- American Newspaper Eleven." The Farmington news remained at that prominent corner location into the 1940s or later." ~ Historic District National Register Nomination Form