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The Advocate (Stamford)
Encyclopedia
The Advocate is a seven-day daily newspaper based in Stamford
, Connecticut
, USA. The paper shares a publisher and editor with the Greenwich Time
; both are owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation
, a multinational
corporate media conglomerate
with $4 billion in revenues.
The Advocate circulates in Stamford and the nearby southwestern Connecticut towns of Darien
and New Canaan
. Since 2003, it has also published a separate edition that serves Norwalk
. The paper's headquarters moved in 2008 from downtown Stamford, across the street from the Stamford Government Center, to the Riverbend complex in the Springdale section of Stamford. It also has a news bureau in Norwalk.
through the "Railroad Ties" column, since many in southwestern Connecticut commute by train.
The Advocate Website
was launched in 1999. In early 2007, the site started featuring message boards.
Several town leaders then helped to finance the publication again, this time under the name The Sentinel, which first appeared on February 16, 1830. Stamford was never without a local newspaper of one kind or another since then. The oldest known copy of The Sentinel, dated June 22, 1830, is in Stamford's public library, the Ferguson Library. That issue, marked Volume 1, No. 19, consists of four sheets, 15 by 20 inches each, with six columns to a page. The motto of the newspaper, printed at the top of the front page, was: "Pledged to no party's arbitrary way, we follow Truth wher'er she leads the way."
The newspaper published very little local news, according to Don Russell, an Advocate columnist who wrote about the early history of the paper. "[T]he columns were filled with sermons, poems and what were called literary 'gems' from various sources, and some domestic and foreign news items taken from newspapers in big cities."
An early columnist in the newspaper wrote under the pseudonym "Aristides the Younger" and at one point denounced the Rev. Joel Mann of Greenwich for anti-Masonic tendencies. Some think the columnist was Holly.
Holly promoted reading in Stamford in various ways, operating his own circulating library out of his office, with books available to borrowers he deemed responsible. He was also one of the major founders of Stamford's public library, the Ferguson.
In 1861 printer William Gillespie and his brother, Edward, joined the newspaper staff. Edward would later cover the Civil War
from the front lines. Eventually the Gillespie brothers, sons of a Canadian immigrant to Stamford, bought the newspaper and became the first of three generations of Gillespie owners of the publication.
In 1892 they made the newspaper a daily. Around the turn of the century the name changed to The Daily Advocate. The name was later changed to The Stamford Advocate.
In 1894, the Advocate moved into a new building at 258 Atlantic Street (across the street from St. John Roman Catholic Church). The facade is in Neo-Italian Renaissance style, and its relatively narrow front widens out considerably in the back, where the newspaper's printing press was located. In 1928 the building was remodeled, and the newspaper remained in that location until 1980. (The building was then occupied by various architectural and design firms and an Internet company. In 2002 it became the home of the Print Research Foundation.)
In the late 1940s, the 1947 film Boomerang
, directed by Elia Kazan
was shot almost entirely in Stamford, and partly at the newspaper's offices, then on Atlantic Street. Some members of the editorial staff were shown in the movie.
In 1978, Anthony Dolan, a staff writer at the time, won a Pulitzer Prize
for reporting on city corruption. While in college, he had written for the Yale Daily News
, and interviewed Stamford resident and Yale
alumnus William F. Buckley Jr. for that student newspaper. The two became friends, and when Dolan lost his job with Gannett, Buckley helped get him hired by The Advocate. By 1979, Dolan had become tired of journalism and in 1980 went to work for Ronald Reagan
's campaign for president. Dolan went on to become a speechwriter in Reagan's White House.
In 1980, the newspaper moved to its current address at the corner of Tresser Boulevard and Washington Avenue in downtown Stamford. The building was constructed by Frank Mercedes & Sons Inc. under a contract signed by the Advocate's then-publisher Jay Shaw.
In June 2000, Tribune Company
bought Times Mirror, incorporating The Advocate into the Chicago-based company's holdings. The property at Tresser Blvd was subsequently sold.
In May 2003 The Advocate opened an office at 605 West Ave. in Norwalk. The newspaper already had started a Norwalk edition.
.
The Advocate and its sister paper, the Greenwich Time
, were sold to Hearst for US$62.4 million by Tribune Company
in a deal that closed November 1, 2007. The sale did not include Tribune-owned land in Stamford and Greenwich
, including the papers' printing presses. At the end of 2007, printing plant employees were permanently laid off and the newspaper was printed at the Danbury News-Times plant, owned by MediaNews Group. The Greenwich Time
was then printed at the Connecticut Post
plant in Bridgeport
.
On January 6, 2008, the newspaper announced in a front-page article that its Stamford offices were moving from 75 Tresser Boulevard, where the newspaper had been located since 1981, to the Riverbend office complex off Hope Street in the city's Springdale
section, with the move expected by the end of the month. The Norwalk office was moving from leased office space at 605 West Avenue, where it had been since the Norwalk edition began, to 542 Westport Avenue, effective immediately.
On August 8, 2008 the Hearst Corporation acquired the Connecticut Post
(Bridgeport, Conn.) and www.ConnPost.com, including seven non-daily newspapers, from MediaNews Group, Inc. and assumed management control of three additional daily newspapers in Fairfield County
, Conn., including The Advocate (Stamford), Greenwich Time
(Greenwich), and The News-Times (Danbury), which had been managed for Hearst by MediaNews had managed under a management agreement that began in April 2007.
The Advocate has been known by various names:
Microfilm:
Originals:
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, USA. The paper shares a publisher and editor with the Greenwich Time
Greenwich Time (newspaper)
Greenwich Time is a daily newspaper based in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. The paper shares an editor and publisher with The Advocate of nearby Stamford, Connecticut...
; both are owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
, a multinational
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
corporate media conglomerate
Media conglomerate
A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet...
with $4 billion in revenues.
The Advocate circulates in Stamford and the nearby southwestern Connecticut towns of Darien
Darien, Connecticut
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", the population was 20,732 at the 2010 census. Darien was listed at #9 at CNN Money's list of "top-earning towns" in the United States as of 2011...
and New Canaan
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...
. Since 2003, it has also published a separate edition that serves Norwalk
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
. The paper's headquarters moved in 2008 from downtown Stamford, across the street from the Stamford Government Center, to the Riverbend complex in the Springdale section of Stamford. It also has a news bureau in Norwalk.
Coverage
In addition to the regular focus on local news, sports and business, The Advocate pays special attention to the workings of Metro-North RailroadMetro-North Railroad
The Metro-North Commuter Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, or, more commonly, Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service that is run and managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority , an authority of New York State. It is the busiest commuter railroad in the United...
through the "Railroad Ties" column, since many in southwestern Connecticut commute by train.
The Advocate Website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
was launched in 1999. In early 2007, the site started featuring message boards.
History
The Advocate has been called (by its oldest columnist) Stamford's oldest continuing business.The Intelligencer
The paper's earliest origins come from The Intelligencer, a newspaper originally run out of a small office on the south side of West Park (now Columbus Park in downtown Stamford) in April 1829. William Henry "Hen" Holly installed a printing press there, but despite some support from the community, he closed the publication after a few months for lack of revenue.Several town leaders then helped to finance the publication again, this time under the name The Sentinel, which first appeared on February 16, 1830. Stamford was never without a local newspaper of one kind or another since then. The oldest known copy of The Sentinel, dated June 22, 1830, is in Stamford's public library, the Ferguson Library. That issue, marked Volume 1, No. 19, consists of four sheets, 15 by 20 inches each, with six columns to a page. The motto of the newspaper, printed at the top of the front page, was: "Pledged to no party's arbitrary way, we follow Truth wher'er she leads the way."
The newspaper published very little local news, according to Don Russell, an Advocate columnist who wrote about the early history of the paper. "[T]he columns were filled with sermons, poems and what were called literary 'gems' from various sources, and some domestic and foreign news items taken from newspapers in big cities."
An early columnist in the newspaper wrote under the pseudonym "Aristides the Younger" and at one point denounced the Rev. Joel Mann of Greenwich for anti-Masonic tendencies. Some think the columnist was Holly.
Holly promoted reading in Stamford in various ways, operating his own circulating library out of his office, with books available to borrowers he deemed responsible. He was also one of the major founders of Stamford's public library, the Ferguson.
Family ownership
In May 1848, Edgar Hoyt and Andrew Smith came into ownership of the newspaper. The partners renamed it The Stamford Advocate. Advertising was banished from the front page.In 1861 printer William Gillespie and his brother, Edward, joined the newspaper staff. Edward would later cover the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
from the front lines. Eventually the Gillespie brothers, sons of a Canadian immigrant to Stamford, bought the newspaper and became the first of three generations of Gillespie owners of the publication.
In 1892 they made the newspaper a daily. Around the turn of the century the name changed to The Daily Advocate. The name was later changed to The Stamford Advocate.
Atlantic Street offices
In the late 1940s, the 1947 film Boomerang
Boomerang (1947 film)
Boomerang! is a 1947 film based on the true story of a vagrant who was accused of murder, only to be found innocent through the efforts of the prosecutor...
, directed by Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
was shot almost entirely in Stamford, and partly at the newspaper's offices, then on Atlantic Street. Some members of the editorial staff were shown in the movie.
Times-Mirror and Tribune
In 1977, the Gillespie family sold the paper to Times Mirror Company, owner of The Los Angeles Times.In 1978, Anthony Dolan, a staff writer at the time, won a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for reporting on city corruption. While in college, he had written for the Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
, and interviewed Stamford resident and Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
alumnus William F. Buckley Jr. for that student newspaper. The two became friends, and when Dolan lost his job with Gannett, Buckley helped get him hired by The Advocate. By 1979, Dolan had become tired of journalism and in 1980 went to work for Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's campaign for president. Dolan went on to become a speechwriter in Reagan's White House.
In 1980, the newspaper moved to its current address at the corner of Tresser Boulevard and Washington Avenue in downtown Stamford. The building was constructed by Frank Mercedes & Sons Inc. under a contract signed by the Advocate's then-publisher Jay Shaw.
In June 2000, Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
bought Times Mirror, incorporating The Advocate into the Chicago-based company's holdings. The property at Tresser Blvd was subsequently sold.
In May 2003 The Advocate opened an office at 605 West Ave. in Norwalk. The newspaper already had started a Norwalk edition.
Sale to Hearst
In March 2007, Tribune Co. had announced it would sell the two papers to Gannett for US$73 million, but the deal fell through when Gannett refused to honor 35 Advocate newsroom workers' union contract with Local 2110 of United Auto WorkersUnited Auto Workers
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers , is a labor union which represents workers in the United States and Puerto Rico, and formerly in Canada. Founded as part of the Congress of Industrial...
.
The Advocate and its sister paper, the Greenwich Time
Greenwich Time (newspaper)
Greenwich Time is a daily newspaper based in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. The paper shares an editor and publisher with The Advocate of nearby Stamford, Connecticut...
, were sold to Hearst for US$62.4 million by Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
in a deal that closed November 1, 2007. The sale did not include Tribune-owned land in Stamford and Greenwich
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...
, including the papers' printing presses. At the end of 2007, printing plant employees were permanently laid off and the newspaper was printed at the Danbury News-Times plant, owned by MediaNews Group. The Greenwich Time
Greenwich Time (newspaper)
Greenwich Time is a daily newspaper based in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. The paper shares an editor and publisher with The Advocate of nearby Stamford, Connecticut...
was then printed at the Connecticut Post
Connecticut Post
The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves the greater Bridgeport area, Fairfield County, and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Bridgeport, Ansonia,...
plant in Bridgeport
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
.
On January 6, 2008, the newspaper announced in a front-page article that its Stamford offices were moving from 75 Tresser Boulevard, where the newspaper had been located since 1981, to the Riverbend office complex off Hope Street in the city's Springdale
Springdale, Connecticut
Springdale is a section or neighborhood in Stamford, Connecticut. It is known around Stamford to have a small-town feel in the middle of a mid-sized city...
section, with the move expected by the end of the month. The Norwalk office was moving from leased office space at 605 West Avenue, where it had been since the Norwalk edition began, to 542 Westport Avenue, effective immediately.
On August 8, 2008 the Hearst Corporation acquired the Connecticut Post
Connecticut Post
The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves the greater Bridgeport area, Fairfield County, and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Bridgeport, Ansonia,...
(Bridgeport, Conn.) and www.ConnPost.com, including seven non-daily newspapers, from MediaNews Group, Inc. and assumed management control of three additional daily newspapers in Fairfield County
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The county population is 916,829 according to the 2010 Census. There are currently 1,465 people per square mile in the county. It is the most populous county in the State of Connecticut and contains...
, Conn., including The Advocate (Stamford), Greenwich Time
Greenwich Time (newspaper)
Greenwich Time is a daily newspaper based in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA. The paper shares an editor and publisher with The Advocate of nearby Stamford, Connecticut...
(Greenwich), and The News-Times (Danbury), which had been managed for Hearst by MediaNews had managed under a management agreement that began in April 2007.
The name
Founded in 1829 as The Stamford Intelligencer, the newspaper was renamed several times in the 1830s and 1840s before becoming The Stamford Advocate in 1843.The Advocate has been known by various names:
- Stamford Intelligencer April 8, 1829, when the newspaper had a brief run as a weekly, to February __, 1830
- Stamford Sentinel February 15, 1830, when the newspaper was restarted, to August 17, 1835 and again from October 5, 1835 to March 13, 1837
- Democratic Sentinel — March 19, 1838 to July __, 1840
- Farmer's Advocate
- The Farmer and Mechanic's Advocate, (the comma was part of the title) — June 15, 1842 to some date in 1843
- Daily Advocate starting at some date in 1843 and until March 30, 1922
- The Advocate in 1974.
Locations of historical archives
Depositories:Microfilm:
- Connecticut State Library:
- April 8, 1829 to August 18, 1904 (Under other titles)
- April 5, 1892 to December 1955
- January 1967 to December 1971
- January 1975 to present (as of 1985)
- Ferguson Library in Stamford:
- April 5, 1892 to present
- New Canaan High SchoolNew Canaan High SchoolNew Canaan High School is a public high school in New Canaan, Connecticut.- History :Construction on the school was finalized in 1971. The school is located on grounds donated by the Lapham family, carving off approximiately 46 acres of Waveny Park....
: 1829-1880
Originals:
- Connecticut State Library:
- 1853-1867
- 1880
- 1890
- 1892-1895
- Ferguson Library in Stamford: 1829-1904