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Across from the Municipal Building and Courthouse, the Rorer A. James building speaks the language of civic pride and a newspaper empire. The building is the former location of the Register & Bee, currently owned and operated by Media General and in circulation since 1832. In an1899 auction, the company was sold to Rorer A. James for $5000. This impressive terra cotta faux granite edifice was built in 1923 to house its operations after a raging fire destroyed the original location along with the 2nd Masonic Temple at the opposite end of this block.
His son, Rorer A. James, Jr. inherited the newspaper from this father circa 1921, and at his untimely death in 1937, the newspapers came into the hands of his young daughter, Stuart James, later Mrs. Walter Grant. She was the youngest woman in the nation to own two successful newspapers, which she ran with an iron fist until her death in the early 1990’s. In a family squabble at the death of her husband, their children became heirs to this property and led her to build another publishing location in the nearby Tobacco Warehouse District. Vacant for about 35 years, the building retains its elegance with massive fluted columns, an engraved cornice with lion head gargoyles and fleur de lis designs, and decorative glass boxes on each side of the curving, almost Art Deco stairs, that would feature daily publications of the two newspapers.
The ceiling above the entrance door is decorated with colored terra cotta tiles that were modeled after tiles in the Library of Congress and remains as the last vestige of the entire lobby ceiling décor, which was lost to a leaking roof. The building features approximately 14,000 sq. ft. on several levels and is zoned Central Business District, which affords façade grants, tax abatement, and Urban Enterprise Zone incentives. Sited on a corner location, underground parking is possible as the catacombs of the printing press area are deep below grade at the street level. An elevator shaft still exists off the large lobby. Aficionados of public architecture will adore the Rorer A. James building.
Priced at $299,000 Susan Stilwell, Historic Specialist heritageva99@hotmail.com 434.548.4816 Century 21 Manasco Realty 434.792.3000, Ext. 22 www.manasco.com/historic.htm
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