A large brick building was on this site and was used by the Appeal To Reason newspaper in 1896. Its publisher was J.A. Wayland, a Socialist. About 750,000 copies were mailed out weekly in 1913 all across the world and was the largest circulated newspaper at this time.
It was later the home of the Little Blue Books and was run by Emanuel Haldeman-Juliusl. It had the largest printing presses west of the Mississippi. 100 million copies of the Little Blue Books were sold in 1926.
The plant burned on July 4, 1978.