Built in 1923, the Dewine Building was constructed for an estimated cost of $16,500 as a showroom for the L.S. Harris Motor Company.  Chalmers and Maxwell automobiles were what the Harris Motor Company sold.  The building’s life as an automobile dealership was short, the building was adapted into a bowling center with 12 lanes in 1939.  As people began to leave the inner city in the post-war years the building served a number of uses, with the 1982 Worlds Fair bringing a brief renaissance to downtown and the inner city neighborhoods and with it an addition to the original showroom building.  The building most recently served as home to a printing company until the building was left vacant in the late 1990s.

The current owner purchased the building in 2017 with the goal of relocating his catering kitchen from a downtown restaurant into the 1980’s addition.  The original showroom building was more or less an afterthought with one likely use being self storage for downtown’s growing residential population.  In an early site visit the architect climbed through a scuttle hole and observed the vastness of the 100’ x 100’ clear span structure.  Scenarios were then presented to “test fit” potential uses including a 600 person community event space and performance venue.

Now branded as The Press Room, the building retains historic elements of the original including the original steel truss structure, wood decking, and brick walls.  Existing openings were enlarged and expanded with new steel transom windows matching historic profiles.  These elements are contrasted with modern features including new accordion doors providing access to an elevated courtyard with board formed concrete walls and patterned steel picket railings.