Transitory Headquarters Hampered Early Crime in Battle for Survival

Perhaps as a cause, perhaps as an effect of the turbulent conditions under which the early CRIMSON was published, the location of its building and facilities changed as fast as the editors in its first quarter century.

Competition and the fight for existence made life precarious for the editors of the Magenta and the early CRIMSON. Operating on the proverbial financial shoestring and publishing papers with only the President's rooms for a newsroom, imagination and resourcefulness were the prime requisites for success in the 1880s and 1980s.

The early Magenta had an easier time of it than its successors, however, since it appeared only fortnightly and could concentrate on perfection and literary merit rather than spot news. During this time the paper was assembled in leisurly fashion after a meeting of editors in the President's room, where the efforts of the board were revised by two members and then shuttled off to a printing company in Boston.

By 1882 the paper had become a weekly, but the harried atmosphere of news reporting was not apparent until the rival Harvard Herald began putting out extras on sports events which Boston papers credited with being "the fastest ever known in the newspaper world." The more staid CRIMSON met this threat to supremacy by amalgamating with the Herald in a bargain which gave the CRIMSON every conceivable advantage, and henceforth it became a daily.

But the paper was still virtually home less, occupying a single room in the Lyceum building and publishing, according to a former editor, "in a happy-go-lucky fashion where at least at much time was devoted to punches and jolly fellowship as to work." But by the end of the eighties a sterner spirit had overtaken the board, and the social and alcoholic functions were abandoned in favor of more serous and better organized journalistic effort.

In 1889 the editors bought out an office at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Linden Street, where for the first time their own make-up facilities were contained within the building. One thing was still lacking, however: once the forms were composed and locked up, they had to be rushed downtown for printing.

By 1892 a printing company was established around the corner from the CRIMSON offices, and this was utilized for a renewed burst of extra editions appearing in the nineties. Copy, which usually concerned football or baseball games, was dropped from the stands wrapped around rocks and rushed to the composing rooms on bicycles. Once again extras greeted spectators as they left the stands.

A degree of permanence replaced the hand-to-mouth operations of the CRIMSON with the founding of the Crimson Printing Co. in 1893. Its two owners, endowed with an unusual degree of patience and fortitude, received the paper's printing contract that year and have maintained it from that time to this. The following year a press within the building was added to the CRIMSON's facilities, a potent factor in subduing the upstart Harvard Daily News.

Under the stimulation of that period of competition, the CRIMSON built up large enough profits to expand its Massachusetts Avenue facilities still further. But the editors were still unsatisfied, and in 1899 they culminated their editorial campaign in favor of the Union by moving in, lock, stock, and linotype, after turning down several other likely bids.

The dream of their own building still lived in CRIMSON editors minds, but several early plans fell through. It was not until 1912 that the empty lot at 14 Plympton St. came into view. By 1914 the lot was in the CRIMSON's hands, and little over a year later a massive Yale game number marked the official arrival of the editors. A prophetic editorial proclaimed: ". . . .the migratory days of the CRIMSON are over, and all its future energy can be devoted to internal improvement."

In their assiduous devotion to internal improvement, the editors permitted the building to deteriorate unnoticed for the next twenty years, until by 1946 it had become a menace to safety as well as comfort and efficiency. Abandoning their former expedient of moving to new grounds, a building fund was raised and during the past summer the entire building was renovated in modern style.