Falcons, boats, food, history—even a gold mine
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END O F TH E RUN
WHE N MA RK WALTERS starte d his job at Th e Sacrame nto Bee about two decades ago, rou ghly 3,00 0 em ployee s filtered th rou gh th e b uild ing th at was open seve n days a week, 24 hour s a day. Whe n all four massive pres s units were runn ing, Walter s re called, th e b uild ing s ho ok . For five months, sinc e th e presse s last rolled Jan. 30, th e b uild ing th at housed Th e Bee at 21st an d Q street s underwent a massive dec ommi ss ion ing process. I n th e wee ks th at foll owed, cutting torches rippe d apar t th e th ree-and-a-hal f-s tor y presse s into sc rap metal. Huge machines reached th roug h a gap ing h ol e in th e s id e of th e pres s room to lift out th e stee l unit s that littered a fo rme r park ing lot like tombstones in a western graveyard . B y July 31—when th ere wa s no t rac e of The Be e le f t ins id e—th e 390,00 0-square-foot build ing had becom e a g ho s t town.
PH OT OGRAPHY B Y DIC K S CHM IDT
J ul y 29, 2021 A wor ker us es a metal sc rape tool to rem ove decades of pressroom ink sludge in the fi nal days of a fi ve-month project to rem ove the
massive Be e presses for sc rap metal.
TH E SACRAMENTO BEE co ns isted of adjoining fac ilities oc cupyin g 7 acres, two full cit y blocks—the 21st and Q S treet buildin g that op en ed in 1952 , w hi ch housed administration , sales an d the newsroom, an d th e newer production buildin g wi th printing presses built in 1982.
Walters, the Be e’s fac ilities manager, has overseen th e taking apar t afte r “being responsible fo r the physi ca l building—every nu t an d bolt,” h e said. “I didn’t get a chanc e to count ’em , but the re’s a lot of the m I was respo ns ible for HVAC, compresse d air, vacuum systems , all systems. I wa s a ls o in charge of securi ty an d fire, life and safety Wh at didn’t I do?”
After The Bee building wa s s ol d in 2017 to Shopoff Realty Investments, a S ou thern California c om pany, the newspaper becam e a tenant in it s own home W he n the pande mi c sent betwee n 600 and 70 0 employee s hom e in March 2020, the building sat mostly empty, Walters said, until th e dec om m issionin g began in Febr uary 2021.
By th e en d of J uly about 10 people roame d the cavernou s spac e w he re a full press once h el d 96 rolls of newsp rint—each one weighing up to 1,500–1,600 pounds , about 8 miles of paper.
“If you pu t all the pape r we ran end to end, i t woul d go to the moon and back twoand-a-hal f times,” Walter s said, re ca lling that at on e point th e paper’s sl ogan on its delivery trucks read , “Miss a day, miss a lot.”
In re ce nt ye ars , though, he added , “We were printing DTE—dead tree e di tions. We all know pape r is fragile, but if you tuck it away in th e dark, it’ll survive for a lo ng time. W ill this digita l stuff b e he re in 2,00 0 years?”
The Be e has moved to mu c h smalle r offices at Th e Can ne ry on Alhambra Boulevard wi th most of its staff wo rk ing offsite . Th e pape r is n ow printe d in Fremont and trucked to Sacramento fo r da ily distribution.
As th e last man out the door, Walters spoke wi th great pride of the en d of th e run.
“I t was th e be st job I eve r had in my life,” Walters said “The o rganization was great I love all the people. I had a wonderful tim e every day.”
The Sacramento Bee’s facilities manager, Mark Walters, in the courtyard as it appeared for decades.
June 17, 2021
J ul y 2, 2021 Exterior after its name had been removed.
July 21, 2021 Once a hotbed of frantic action, noise and activity, the post-press facility had everything removed and cleaned for the
Feb. 26, 2021 Machines for sorting, insertions, bundling and packaging make up an extensive post-press area of The Bee’s production facility, forever quiet after the last press run on Jan. 30.
July 29, 2021 Once the vibrant heart and soul of The Sacramento Bee’s news-gathering mission, the newsroom sits forever dark prior to the building turning over to its owner.
building to be turned over to the owner.
May 6, 2021 “The pressroom is bleeding”: After removal of an entire line of presses, magenta ink remains where supply lines feeding one unit had been cut in preparation for demolition.
Feb. 26, 2021 The first unit of The Bee’s presses starts the dismantling process, with workers using cutting torches with up to a 6-foot reach, to take apart the massive steel machines.
May 6, 2021 Half way through the removal of the presses, debris piles up.
July 21, 2021 The pressroom, occupying a space half a block long, is gutted.
March 25, 2021 On the floor beneath the presses, in the building’s basement, rotating reels would feed huge rolls of newsprint upward into the roaring printing presses.
July 21, 2021 The empty pressroom, after all the presses, offices and control rooms had been removed for recycling into scrap metal, measures 3½ stories high from basement floor to ceiling.
