In the popular spot where coffee addicts now order up macchiatos, The Athens Messenger once printed the news. Upstairs from that, where patrons now hide themselves in study corners, The Messenger’s main competitor in town operated its own newsroom.

Such was life in Athens back in the 1910s. Two newspapers, The Athens Messenger and its rival Athens Journal Democratic, battled for readership on opposite floors of what was then known as the Law Building. In modern times, the purple building on West Washington Street houses Donkey Coffee and Espresso alongside Minuteman Press.

A photograph of the Law Building from that time period made its way into our current newsroom in The Plains this week. Our eyes were quickly drawn to the south wall directly facing the Athens County Courthouse and the old county jail, which is now the sheriff’s office.

“THE DAILY MESSENGER,” a mural reads. Above it, another one: “THE JOURNAL DEMOCRATIC UPSTAIRS.”

One can only imagine how awkward and inconvenient that set up must have been. Keep quiet about your breaking news, everbody, lest the Journal scribes overhear you and scoop the story.

This revelation — that The Messenger’s newsroom was once located in the Donkey Coffee/Minuteman Press space — got us thinking more about our past. In between this newspaper’s time on West Washington Street and its current digs off Route 33, The Messenger was produced in a stately building on West Union Street. It was built in 1925 next door to what was then the town’s post office. Ohio University bought the building in 1972 and has since used the space for journalism and communications classes. It was renamed Lasher Hall in honor of George Starr Lasher, who once served as director of the OU School of Journalism.

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