HOUSTON – It's moving day at the Houston Chronicle.
After more than 100 years at its downtown address, the newspaper is packing up and moving to the old Houston Post building at 4747 Southwest Freeway.
The investigative team, known for hoarding hundreds of police reports and old notebooks for their longform stories, has a lot of paperwork to pick through.
"I guess it's kind of shocking when you look around and see how many little boxes of stuff that you forgot about," says investigative reporter James Pinkerton as he scans his desk piled with papers.
Pinkerton and all his colleagues have to be out of the building by the end of the day. Many have sat at these desks for decades, but the paper itself has been here for centuries.
The Chronicle first set up shop at the corner of Texas and Travis back in 1910, and it's called the building home ever since.
All that history has enticed some staff to spend this last week exploring.
"The biggest thing was just finding out what's in this building, because you don't usually wander around all the floors, but there's just nooks and crannies and offices," says reporter Dane Schiller.
Schiller has taken on the job of digging for treasure.
Some memorabilia he's kept for himself, like a plastic-covered copy of the Chronicle from July 10, 1965. But he's been sure to share some other keepsakes with his coworkers—helping everyone find a piece of history to take home.
"So much has happened in this building before us, so much. Some of us know a little bit of it, but no one knows all of it, but I don't want them to close the book on it, ya know? I want to know what happened here, and share it," says Schiller.
As Schiller and fellow reporter Craig Hlavaty give a tour through the eerie lower levels of the building that used to house the printing presses and paper supply for the Chronicle, we stumble upon other explorers taking it all in. Some are even former employees who wanted to wander the nearly-vacant building one last time.
"I just had to see the place one more time. It's funny how you can feel such strong emotions about an ugly old building, but 30 years, and I think what I remember is all the people," says former employee Burke Watson. "So I just wanted to see a bunch of old friends and see this old friend one last time."
Ten floors is a lot of room. On our walk-through, we find old staff locker rooms that haven't been used in years. One locker has a deteriorating bible from the 1960s sitting inside.
Another floor is an apparent storage unit, packed front to back with old office furniture, typewriters and squeaky chairs.
These are the things Schiller, Hlavaty and others have rifled through over the last few days, keeping what they can and what's meaningful. Most of the staff have snagged some souvenirs, packing up old papers, news artifacts and banners that used to hang for all to see. Doodles and signatures spot the walls of the newsroom, making a sort of life-size yearbook, as employees leave their mark on a building that's held lots of Houston history.
"I think it's very important to sort of preserve it in any way we can," says Hlavaty. "Obviously as reporters that's our job to chronicle history."
"You know it has a really rich history. There have been a lot of really good journalists that have come through here, and we've covered a lot of big stories here in Houston," says Pinkerton.
"So much has happened in this building before us, so much. Some of us know a little bit of it, but no one knows all of it, but I don't want them to close the book on it. I want to know what happened here, and share it," says Schiller.
