Former Times Leader employees enter the old newsroom for the first time in years Monday thanks to a tour provided by King’s College, which bought the building at 15 North Main St.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
King’s College president welcomes them to site of ‘sacred work’
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King’s College President the Rev. Thomas Looney talks about the school’s commitment to preserve and repurpose the former Times Leader building on Main Street in Wilkes-Barre during a Monday tour for former Times Leader emploiyees. Standing next to Looney is Tom Butchko, King’s associate vice president of facilities.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
“That’s where the press used to run.”
“This is where the dark room was for the photographers.”
“We were in this room when we heard about 9/11.”
Those are just a few of the comments more than 20 Times Leader employees, past and present, made on Monday afternoon as they toured four floors and a basement area of the former Times Leader building at 15 N. Main St. in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
King’s College purchased the historic building for $725,000 in 2018 after the Times Leader moved to 90 E. Market St., and plans to have the building ready to house a doctoral program in occupational therapy — the first doctoral program for King’s — in time for the 2024 fall semester.
Hosting the tour were King’s president the Rev. Thomas Looney and Tom Butchko, associate vice president of facilities and procurement.
It was yet another Tom — Times Leader history and genealogy columnist Tom Mooney who is also a proud King’s College alum — who had requested the tour.
Describing the site as a place where “the sacred work” of informing readers had taken place, Father Looney said the college was happy to welcome the TL employees to see their former offices, just as it had been glad to welcome members of the former Memorial Presbyterian Church on North Street to see how it had been transformed into the new college’s Chapel of Christ the King, which was dedicated in 2019.
“I came to see the old building,” Irene Zigmund Kovaleski, a King’s College alum and former TL staffer who now works for GUARD insurance, told her past co-workers. “But what I really enjoyed was seeing all of you.”
“I grew up in this building,” said Alan Stout, another King’s College alum and former TL staffer, now working as executive director of the Luzerne County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Reflecting on the visit after the tour, Times Leader Media Group Publisher Kerry Miscavage said, “I love our home here on Market Street as it’s wonderful to have our whole team under one roof, but with that said, I have some very wonderful memories of the 23 years I walked through the Main Street doors.”
“Most of the memories there were made because of the friendships I formed through our work. My best friends in life are all people I met through the Times Leader in the Main Street Building.”
EXPANDED TOUR
Watch for more photos, video and memories of the North Main Street building in this Sunday’s Times Leader.