In the early days, all the newspaper printing in Marion was done primarily in one small section in the southeast corner of the square known as the 1000 block. Over the years, it housed the Egyptian Press, Marion Evening Post, Marion Evening Herald, Marion Leader Publishing and the Illinois Baptist Association Printing.

In January 1903, James H. Felts  joined forces with Samuel K. Casey by buying Walter Williams’ interest, in the Egyptian Press Printing Company at 1000 Public Square, which published the Marion Evening Post (daily paper), the Egyptian Press (semi-weekly paper), and the Illinois Baptist at Marion.

Casey and Felts established the Marion Evening Post in March 1902. The Egyptian Press had been established in 1872.

In 1907, the Post and Press building was built on S. Franklin Avenue just 100 feet south of their old location. This building would serve as the nerve center for newspaper publishing for the next nine decades.

The Egyptian Press Company was one of the best equipped offices in Southern Illinois and occupied its own building. The plant was equipped with linotype, intertype, and a two revolution book and news press. This is the same building that would give birth to the Marion Daily Republican.

James H. Felts was publisher of the Illinois Baptist Newspaper when it was published in Marion, Illinois. The subscriptions were $1.50 a year. Felts edited and published the minutes of county and state Baptist associations for thirty years.

In 1922, the building was occupied by Leader Publishing, the Egyptian Press and the Illinois Baptist. The Leader Publishing Company turned out the Marion Daily Republican, Weekly Leader and Marion Evening Post with an address of 101-103 S. Franklin Ave. The Egyptian Press and Illinois Baptist used the address of 111 S. Franklin Ave.

In 1927, it was in use by the Republican Leader Printing at 101-103 and the Egyptian Press at 107-113.

By 1939, it was down to the Marion Evening Post at 109 and the Republican Leader at 101-103.

In 1955, only the Leader Publishing Company which produced the Daily Republican and Weekly Leader existed.

The Cox hardware fire in 1963, which destroyed the entire block of buildings to the west of the building created a front view of the building for the first time in its existence. It was noted then that the local Selective Service office occupied the front south office upstairs.

In 1971, publication of the Marion Leader ceased leaving only the Marion Daily Republican and commercial printing being done on site.

All of the heavy presses and printing took place on the bottom floor adjacent to East College Street and this is where local delivery boys would pick up their papers for delivery. Offices were on the second floor and accessed from the Franklin Ave. entrance, at elevated sidewalk level, on the front, west side. Third floor offices were accessed from a central door and staircase at the front entrance.

The building sustained occasional small fires and water damage over time and was eventually abandoned by Leader Publishing around 1993. The publishing company started outsourcing their printing in West Frankfort and moved to an office located at 502 W. Jackson not far from the county court house.

The building has been vacant since then and fallen into disrepair but still exists as of this writing in August 2013.

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(Photos courtesy of the Williamson County Historical Society and the Marion Daily Republican; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 08/22/2013)