Whither the Whig?

I recently came across some vintage Kingston Whig-Standard pages posted by Tim Gordanier. The ads and articles were interesting, and short of spending hours and (enjoyable!) hours in an archives room with a micro-reader and years of Whigs on microfilm, this was a nice, manageable dose of historical research and even nostalgia! But in this morning's Whig, I read the ad proclaiming the Whig being deployed into employees' homes! What? No more Whig 'building'? The prolific photographer George Lilley often snapped the Whig building at King and Clarence Streets to test his camera equipment (below in 1948, Queen's University Archives):

The Whig building, built in 1894, was central to downtown Kingston with the printing presses on site. Photos of the presses in action:

Donnacona Paper Co. was incorporated in Quebec in 1928. It was acquired by what is currently Domtar in 1962. Notice the transport mechanism to move the heavy rolls along the floor (above). The Whig was a well-known building for public relations tours, especially when newspapers were a vital part of information dissemination and daily life in Kingston:

The Whig offices moved to the Woolen Mill on Cataraqui Street in 1997, and presses had been  remotely located on Grant Timmins Drive as of 1989. Capital Movers & Storage posted these photos of the 1997 move to the Woolen Mill on their Facebook page:

I recently snapped this dead-on photo for use on my layout's Woolen Mill photo backdrop. The green-windowed main floor Whig offices are in foreground. Now vacant?

Got the word: 

Why pay heat, rent and light when writers' home offices are now the de facto Whig offices, with call centre functions like advertising being handled centrally for some time? According to Postmedia, the staff have been working from home since March, and the lease on the space has expired and will not be renewed. The paper is often down to 12 pages. All for $1.35 per copy. The masthead phone numbers don't work. It appears the paper has completely abandoned the community that built it. 

Douglas Fetherling wrote a Whig history, A Little Bit of Thunder. In 1963, a building was demolished for updating of the Whig's printing presses. A new building facing Clarence Street replaced two limestone houses. A multi-floor annex with a Goss Headliner press doubled the Whig's floor area. Completed in 1963, its facade was covered in black marble. In 1973, two more buildings were demolished along Clarence Street, as shown in this Whig clipping:

Marc Shaw kindly pointed me in the direction of this 1942 photo showing those buildings on Clarence Street. Likely the first demolished (below - on the left) the 1963 addition included a covered walkway linking it to the main Whig office on King Street. The 1963 addition was demolished in the 1990s, now a parking lot.

The End of an Era. August 1 - we have not renewed our Kingston Whig-Standard  subscription. For the first time in 50+ years, no daily newspaper in the house. We are getting breaking news online, days before the Whig or Global Kingston brings it to us. National and world news from CBC and CNN. We will read local news in Kingston This Week. The final straw? Withdrawing Monday publication, now Wednesdays. 

Becoming increasingly unresponsive to subscription shortfalls, this email does not even include the date of final publication. Printing presses gone, printed elsewhere, office space in Woolen Mill vacated due to pandemic, notices handled by a call centre, minimal local news coverage, and now a 12-page weekday newspaper. Whither the Whig? Now back to our regularly scheduled ads:

1913 ads for Anglin wood (above) and Kingston Laundry (Princess at Sydenham):

Taxi ads 1945:

Wartime grain business was booming in wartime: November 27, 1941:

Coal supplies for customers were a concern in 1943:

A 1953 coal ad: