It might seem like a little thing, but it isn’t.
The Arizona Daily Star, for more than five decades, was headquartered in a huge building at 4850 S. Park Ave., in which news, advertising, finance, press, prepress, composing, and circulation for both the Star and the Tucson Citizen raucously coexisted.
Now, of course, the Citizen is no more and our press work is done in Phoenix. The building on Park was sold several years ago, and the Star’s news and advertising departments now share modern space at 201 N. Bonita Ave. The space is functional, comfortable and pleasant. But on Wednesday, as Senior Editor Hipolito Corella said, we made it feel “a lot more like home.”
For starters, we installed two “Arizona Daily Star” signs in the paper’s trademark Old English A1 flag type. One of these had long served on the outside of the old building, and one was on the inside. For the last few years, they’d been gathering dust. But largely through the efforts of our general manager, Joel Rohlik, they were repaired and repainted, and now they grace our newsroom office walls.
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At the same time, we put up 20 or so Arizona Daily Star photos, some from recent years and some from farther back. I was honored to include a photo by the inimitable former chief photographer Jack Sheaffer; one of the Jim Davis photos of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department in a battle with Miracle Valley church members which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography in 1983; a picture from the days of the Sanctuary Movement, an ongoing human drama beautifully covered by the Star’s Ron Medvescek; powerful monsoon-and-saguaro photos (does anything say “Tucson” more?) from Kelly Presnell, Arizona Photographer of the Year for the last six years; striking, historic portraits of our pressmen in the final days of the press’ operation, by Mamta Popat; and more.
Portraits of Arizona Daily Star pressmen were taken by staff photographer Mamta Popat in the final days of the press’ operation.
The photos and the signs on the wall may seem like little things. But they speak volumes to us. They evoke our connection to the community and to those who labored before to make the Star what it is today.
The Arizona Daily Star has a great history, a vibrant present and a bright future. And we’re proud of that. Putting the signs and photographs on the wall reminds us. And, yes, it makes the office feel a lot more like home.
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