Chillicothe — Could city offices be consolidated in the Gazette Building? Council president Kevin Shoemaker would like to see that, and even sees a grand space for council chambers there.
The first local monthly “America 250” event was held in the Gazette Building at 50 West Main Street on January 10th, 2026. Shoemaker was in attendance, and gave me insights on two major announcements about redevelopment the former A-Plant in Pike County.He also spoke on his hope that the Gazette Building could be a future city hall – and that a particular room in it, where we spoke, could be council chambers.
Shoemaker said the city has been looking at new facilities for a few years, and he had appointed a committee to consider that. Shoemaker said he is passionate about moving forward on city developments.
In March, Councilman Jeff Creed, chair of the Facilities Committee, requested city funds to continue a December 2024 study on improving city offices.
Drawing from the 2018 study of city facilities, he said they were looking at various alternatives for the Old City Hall and the Administration Building, especially where all offices can be combined. Creed said they were looking at some locations, but he couldn’t say where at the time.
The city has spent recent years consolidating city services in the nicknamed “Pepsi Building” at 400 East 7th Street after buying it in 2019.
The America 250 presentation was in the room behind the courtyard to the side of the main Gazette Building. Behind the room is a two-story space, painted black, which was the auction hall of previous owner Kevin Ross’ antique business – and presumably housed a large printing press when the Chillicothe Gazette was in full operation there.
The new Gazette Building was celebrated in more than 100 pages in the April 6th, 1940 edition of the newspaper. It is actually a steel-frame building with a veneer of Pennsylvania sandstone, and was a busy, very modern news operation just before the start of WWII. The western addition was built in 1967.
The Chillicothe Gazette was a merging of two surviving competing newspapers, the Scioto Gazette (dating back to 1800 in Chillicothe, and claiming 1793 in Cincinnati) and the Chillicothe News-Advertiser (started in 1831).
The Gazette sold the building in 2017 and moved out soon after.
See also the main story from the day, where Shoemaker expanded on the two major announcements about redevelopment the former A-Plant in Pike County.
Kevin Ross had shared photos of that space in a December 12, 2021 Facebook post about trying to save part of the Greenbaum Building about to be demolished in Waverly.
