MACON, Ga. — Nearly a decade ago, the Macon Telegraph moved out of its Broadway offices and into an office on Cherry Street. Since then, the building sat vacant -- until Thursday.
"I can't remember if I went downstairs and yelled, 'Stop the presses' or not. But we stopped the presses and got that story in," Charles Richardson recalled.
Richardson was a long-time editorials editor at the paper. He remembers that day well: July 27, 1996. Someone bombed the Olympic Park in Atlanta.
"We were the only newspaper in the state that got that story in all of our editions. Even the Atlanta [Journal] Constitution didn't get it in all of their editions," Richardson said.
He says that's how the Telegraph was when more than 400 people worked in the old building on Broadway. When they moved out, it was bittersweet.
"We were leaving a lot of memories behind, but we were also looking to the future of what our new facility would look like. I mean, this building was built in the 60s," Richardson said.
It sat vacant for years. A new owner, Earl Barrs, has a new use for he 150,000 square foot building: storage.
"Took that warehouse space and converted it to personal storage. It took a lot of cleanup and fresh paint to make it look new again," Barrs said.
He opened up Riverside Storage Thursday, hoping to give a new purpose to a building that's seen so much. It's difficult for Richardson, but he's not surprised.
"I'm not all that happy about it being a storage unit, but it is what it is. A lot of things around Macon have changed. This is just one of them," he said.
Former Telegraph and 13WMAZ reporter Randall Savage summed it up: "Times change. Things move on. Can't stop progress."
Barrs isn't done with the building. He says there's more work to do on the top floor, which once housed the newsroom. He says lofts may be the answer, depending on how the storage business goes.
The storage facility is open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Renters each have a unique code to get into the building.