Community Diamond: Eagle sells building that was company home for 96 years
The center of newsgathering in Butler County for nearly a century has been sold.
The Butler Eagle building at 114 W. Diamond St., an imposing brick-and-concrete structure that has watched over the county courthouse since opening in 1924, will become the latest satellite office of Sheffler & Company engineering and surveying of Sewickley, Allegheny County.
The building closed in January 2019 when the entire Eagle operation was moved to the West Wayne Street production center.
None who have worked in or visited the building over the years will ever forget its unique character, which is displayed in the front office's golden eagles and unique, journalism-inspired ceiling tile sculptures, turn-of-the-century woodwork, transoms above its original doors, and ink stains and cart track in the old production center.
Vernon Wise Jr., former president and publisher of Eagle Printing Co., was born five years after the art deco building was opened upon completion of construction in 1924.He said his grandfather, Levi Wise, moved his law office to the building, but died only six months later.Vernon Wise started out as a carrier, gathering the newspapers he delivered in his neighborhood as a child from the circulation department along with hundreds of other young carriers.
Within his fervent memory are stored countless recollections of events and changes at the stalwart building with the huge concrete eagle above the entrance.Wise said three printing presses have been used in the building's basement and first floor.In the building's early history, one man on a typesetting machine could place the metal letters to complete a few inches of newspaper copy per minute.Later, the company switched to Linotype machines for placing words and graphics on the newspaper's pages, and had a dozen of the now-antiquated machines plus 44 printers that sent each day's product to the printing press before the advent of computers, Wise said.
Because the building had to support the immense weight of the printing press used in the first half of the 20th century, Wise said the floors in the building's production area were reinforced with 14 inches of concrete.Some of that concrete had to be removed to accommodate a printing press purchased in the 1960s, Wise said.In 1963, the Wise family added a single-story sales wing to the east side of the building along with a parking lot.They also tore down a wooden barn behind the building to erect a two-story addition that includes a garage.As he looked through pictures of events and employees over the years, Wise said the Eagle has historically had a low employee turnover rate, and named several workers of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s who gazed back at him from aging black-and-white photographs.“Many retired with more than 40 years of experience,” Wise said.
While the newspaper continues to thrive at its home on West Wayne Street, Wise said the venerated structure on West Diamond Street has been a beacon of information for almost a century.“It was the center of news for the county,” Wise said.Ron Vodenichar, the Eagle's president and publisher, said locking up and handing over the keys to the building owned and occupied by generations of Wises was very emotional.“The employees of the company join everyone in thanking the Wise family for the years of commitment to Butler,” Vodenichar said. “We wish the new owners well and hope that they will strive to let the Eagle building continue to be a place of service to the community.”He said the building has stood proudly as a cornerstone structure of all that took place in the city of Butler for 96 years, and changed with the needs of the community and its purpose.“Technology changed rapidly over the decades the Eagle building was our home,” Vodenichar said. “Eventually, technology and a changing business climate made the Eagle building too much building for the future.”
He said the Eagle's mission to inform the public and impact the community will remain the same at its West Wayne Street location.“But while we create new memories from the new location, we will forever hold onto the cherished role that the Eagle building has played in so many lives, so many businesses and so many families,” Vodenichar said.New owner, new businessGary Sheffler Jr., principal engineer and surveyor at Sheffler & Company, said the company will open a satellite office at the former Eagle building and renovate to create professional office space he hopes to rent to collaborating businesses such as home building and land development firms.
He said the building could eventually see some retail space as well, but no firm plans for that are in the works at this time.Sheffler said because his company conducts much of its business in Butler County, the Eagle building is a good fit.“We are all excited about the location in downtown Butler,” he said. “It's a great spot for us.”Sheffler has already performed a three-dimensional scan of the building's main floor, so he can “walk through” the building virtually while planning renovations.“We are looking at the site plan now,” he said.
The next few months will be spent on design and permit applications as he and his wife, Cristina, who is president of the company, arrange the space.“It's set up for a news operation and we need to figure out how we need to make changes,” Sheffler said. “It's a great old building.”He said the newly renovated building could open in January.“Our shingle will be there early next year,” he said.Sheffler & Company is headquartered in Sewickley and has offices in North Lima, Ohio, and a small facility in Harmony.
