The News Herald Building

This building’s location was actually the site of an early brewery founded by Gertenbach and Braun in 1871.  They purchased two lots from the Contract and Finance Company for $150 to build their business.  Gertenbach left the successful business, but Mike Braun continued the brewery until it burned in August of 1887 and was never rebuilt.  Tom Hocking, editor of the “Modesto Morning Herald” located upstairs in a nearby brick building, purchased one of the brewery’s lots from Braun’s widow in 1904 and constructed a building to house his expanding newspaper business.

Thomas Clinton Hocking (1864 – 1933) came to Modesto in 1893 to become the editor of the “Modesto Herald”, and for the next ten years he strongly fought the battle for irrigation.  He was the founding president of the Board of Trade in 1899 and manager of the 1904 Water Jubilee.  He continued to promote community betterment including a campaign for a new charter form of government for Modesto in 1910.  Hocking brought the first telegraphic service to Modesto and installed the first linotype machine at his newspaper.  Thomas Hocking was considered among the most progressive journalists in California of his time.