Given that newspapers are themselves considered “the first draft of history,” it might seem a simple matter to chronicle a newspaper’s own story. Many notable industry leaders have written their own business autobiographies.
As far as we have been able to determine, The Texas Spur newspaper has been the only tenant of the 50x150 one-story commerical brick building at 424 N. Burlington Avenue.
But research hasn’t filled in the gap on precisely when the structure was built, or who initially financed it. Courthouse records and period photographs show that its neighbor to the south, the Palace Theater, was built in 1929 and opened in October of that year, when its immediate neighbor to the north was an auto dealership downstairs and the Masonic Lodge upstairs. (Only the exterior walls of this building are still standing.)
Pictures also show a vacant lot where The Texas Spur is now, up through 1932 or so. Dickens County records also indicate that William D. Starcher, who had in 1924 set up the Dickens Item as a competitor to the 1909-established Texas Spur, entered into a party wall agreement with owners of the Palace.
Starcher would eventually buy The Texas Spur from the descendants of founding publisher Oran R. McClure (who was killed, tragically, in an auto accident during a March 1931 blizzard while crossing the street on foot). Starcher and his son, and later Grady Lackey, intrdoduced improvements to press and linotype equipment, and ran the combined newspapers out of 424 Burlington until selling out in 1958 to a young editor fresh out of Texas Tech, Grady Joe Harrison.
Joe Harrison and his wife, Jo Ann, ran The Texas Spur for longer than any previous owners, employing many Spurites who still fondly remember wee hours press runs and Thursday morning in-town newspaper routes. The Harrisons turned over the reins to Greg and Cindi Taylor in 1996, and the Taylors continued bringing operations into the digital era for the next two decades. They also oversaw installation of an overhead door at the back, updated bathroom facilities, and a new covered front awning in front.
The old newspaper press had to be dispensed with when printing was consolidated at an out-of-town press in Floydada, and even the job press and the linotype fell into disuse. After Blackmon Publishing’s ownership from 2016 to 2018, the current group—Paragraph Ranch LLC—moved to Spur and acquired The Texas Spur in March of 2018.
To us has fallen the task of scrapping most of the remaining heavy equipment, as we rebuilt and renovated the backshop— two-thirds of the building—to bring it up to 21st-century code. In the process we have continued to turn up more clues to the construction of our proud brick headquarters, including the long-ago inscription in the handpoured concrete near the back door identifying a newsroom crew from eight decades ago.
We continue to hunt for clues, so if you have old photos or remembrances, please share them at spur@thetexasspur. com. Or drop by some Thursday or Friday and we’ll take you on a tour.
NEXT WEEK: 426 Burlington Ave., vacant lot. What do you know about this building?
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