The Tribune Tower is a 305-ft. (93 m), 21-story building located in downtown Oakland

Downtown Oakland

Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California; roughly bounded by 6th Street or the Oakland Estuary on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lake Merritt on the east....

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Completed in 1923, the 89,251 sq.-ft. (8,291 sq.-m.) building was opened by Joseph R. Knowland

Joseph R. Knowland

Joseph Russell Knowland was an American politician and newspaper publisher. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from California and was owner, editor and publisher of the Oakland Tribune. He was the father of United States Senator William F...

 on January 1, 1924, as the home of the Oakland Tribune newspaper, and is a symbol of both the Tribune and the city of Oakland.

History

In 1915, when Joseph Knowland, a former U.S. congressman, acquired the Oakland Tribune, the newspaper was located at Eighth and Franklin streets in the old Golden West Hotel. In 1918, the Breuner Furniture Company vacated its home at Thirteenth and Franklin. Knowland envisioned the vacated showroom and an adjacent warehouse as the site of a first-class newspaper facility. He began to implement this vision with the acquisition of the Breuner's property and the move of the Tribune there.

What became the six-story base of the Tribune Tower had been designed by D. Franklin Oliver and completed in 1907. (The warehouse, which became the Tribunes press room, had been built in the 1890s on the site of the old Pantages Theatre.) The now-familiar clock tower, designed by Edward T. Foulkes, was added in 1923 to complete the Tribune Tower as it appears today.

From 1924, the Tower would appear on the newspaper's masthead. The top floor of the tower housed radio station KLX from its opening until the station was sold in 1959. KLX was sold to pay off debts incurred in the ill-fated 1958 run by U.S. Senator William F. Knowland

William F. Knowland

William Fife Knowland was a United States politician, newspaperman, and Republican Party leader. He was a U.S. Senator representing California from 1945 to 1959. He served as Senate Majority Leader from 1953-1955, and as Minority Leader from 1955-1959. He was defeated in his 1958 run for...

, Joseph Knowland's son, for governor of California. Joseph Knowland was a political mentor to his son, as well as to California attorney general and governor Earl Warren

Earl Warren

Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...

 and many other Republicans.

The building was declared a city landmark on May 4, 1976. At various times, the building has flown a flag with the word, "THERE" emblazoned upon it. This is a send-up of Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...

's comment that in Oakland "there is no there there."

In 1979, Gannett Company

Gannett Company

Gannett Company, Inc. is a publicly-traded media holding company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States, near McLean. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include the national newspaper USA Today and the weekly USA Weekend...

 purchased the Tower from the Tribune Publishing Corporation.

The Tower was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

Loma Prieta earthquake

The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time...

, which led the Tribune to relocate to new offices in Jack London Square

Jack London Square

Jack London Square is a popular tourist attraction on the waterfront of Oakland, California. Named after the author Jack London and owned by the Port of Oakland, it is the home of stores, restaurants, hotels, an Amtrak station, a ferry dock, the historic Saloon, the cabin Jack London lived in the...

. The Tower sat empty until 1995, when John Protopappas purchased it for $300,000. His company, Madison Park Financial Corporation, renovated the Tower in the late 1990s. The Tribune's parent company, ANG Newspapers

ANG Newspapers

Bay Area News Group is the largest newspaper publisher in the San Francisco Bay Area and has corporate headquarters based in San Ramon, California with publications offices in San Jose and Walnut Creek, although the Walnut Creek location is scheduled to be closed under a 2011 restructuring.BANG...

, returned to the building after it reopened in 1999. In early 2006, Protopappas sold the Tribune Tower to Edward B. Kislinger for approximately $15 million.

The clock faces were restored and cleaned up in the late fall of 2006--the numbers and minute increments were enlarged and redefined. On December 22 of that year the faces and the famous TRIBUNE lettering were relit. The top of the Tribune Tower once again acts as a beacon for those approaching downtown Oakland.

Current status

The Oakland Tribune moved permanently to new offices on Oakport Street, near Oakland International Airport

Oakland International Airport

Oakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States...

, on May 20, 2007, abandoning the old Tribune Tower. The building now houses offices and condominiums.