York Town Square

Part of the USAToday Network

Incredible hulk underground on York’s East King Street

In forecasting the pending move of our newsroom in a York Sunday News column, I wrote about the massive buried object that the newspaper left behind in one of its moves… .


When the York Daily Record moved to a new suburban plant in 1973, it departed without its old printing press in its basement pressroom at 31 E. King St. A couple of years later, demolition workers covered it over with dirt and blacktop.
Fifty years from now, someone with a metal detector will find the site, and his metal detector will go nuts. But a dig would bring disappointment. Any precious metals on the old press reportedly were stripped before its burial.
By the way, the move is going well. The goal is for readers not to notice the immense changes going on behind the scenes. We’re moving from 122 S. George Street in York to join printing, advertising, circulation and other departments at 1891 Loucks Road in West Manchester Township.
We’ll just keep our pica sticks crossed that the move will be transparent to our readers.
Actually, pica sticks aren’t used much anymore in our now highly computerized business. At one time, these specialized printers’ rulers were indispensable. That was almost back in the day of subterranean printing presses.