THE NEW PUBLISHING HOUSE

In the latter part of the month of July a telegram was received from the president of the General Conference to go forward immediately with the erection of the new publishing house on the lot which had been purchased for this purpose.HSFM 46.2

Word was at once sent to Bro. L. Hansen of Christiania, Norway, a practical builder of large experience, who had been present at the session of the Council and had consulted with the brethren concerning the plans for this new publishing house. He immediately came to Basle and prepared detailed plans for presentation to the Building Department of the city.HSFM 46.3

Before permission for the erection of any building can be secured, plans and drawings showing all the details of the construction must be submitted to a commission appointed by the city government, for their inspection and approval. The regulations concerning this are very strict, the city laws regulating the manner in which buildings must be constructed, and describing with great minuteness how every part of the work must be done.HSFM 46.4

In addition to this examination by the Building Department, these plans have also to be submitted to a sanitary commission, which has the right to object to any feature of the plan that does not meet their approval. The plans which were submitted by Bro. Hansen, and which had been made according to the instruction of the chief of the Building Department, were condemned by this commission, because the plan for the press room indicated that it was to be built three feet below the level of the street. The ground on which this objection was made was that no room built below the level of the ground was suitable to be employed as a regular work room. Permission to construct the building in this manner was therefore refused. An appeal to the City Council for special permission to construct the press room according to the proposed plan was also refused; but a direct appeal to the sanitary department at last succeeded in removing the objection, and the construction of the building was allowed to proceed.HSFM 46.5

Ground was broken in August; but owing to various delays the work on the walls was not commenced until the first day of September. As Bro. Hansen could not remain to personally superintend its construction, a contract was made with one of the largest builders of the city, which specified that the building should be under roof by the first day of November. It was necessary that the building be roofed at that time, in order to be occupied by the first of July, when the contract expired for the building then occupied. The Building Department would not allow the new buildingHSFM 46.6

[Illustration] View of Weiherweg, Basle. Office of Les Signes des Temps at the Left. to be occupied until eight months after it was roofed. The work was carried forward rapidly, and although the building was not fully completed at the last-named date, sufficient progress had been made to allow it to be occupied at that time both by families and by the printing work.

In March, 1885, Bro. H. W. Kellogg came to assist in the purchase and fitting up of the machinery and fixtures for this establishment. His long experience in our central office of publication at Battle Creek made his services in this respect of great value, and his faithful and untiring efforts contributed much to make this new publishing house what it is reputed to be, one of the most complete and best equipped establishments of the kind in Switzerland. Bro. R. H. Coggeshall, an experienced printer who had long been employed in the Review Office, accompanied Bro. Kellogg to take the oversight of the printing work in the new office.HSFM 48.1