Those newspapers each had a long history before the merger, in particular the Baltimore American which could trace its lineage unbroken to at least 1796, and, traditionally, it claimed even earlier antecedents to 1773.

Other precursor newspapers The News and the Baltimore Post were founded in 1873 and 1922, respectively, and broke new ground in graphics, technology, journalistic style, and quality of writing and reporting.

Longtime owner/editor Charles H. Grasty, who bought the Evening News in 1892, directed the newspaper's coverage of the burgeoning, gritty late-19th Century city, using advanced presses and techniques of graphics, line drawings.

The South Street complex was torn down several years after the newspaper's closing in 1986, and remained a parking lot and a source of controversy for Inner Harbor area redevelopment.

It had been founded in February 1900 and combined with the Baltimore Evening Herald on August 31, 1904, six months after its headquarters building at the northwestern corner of St. Paul and East Fayette Streets was consumed by the blaze.

[1] Several years later, in June 1906, The Herald was bought out by competitors Grasty and his News joined with Gen. Felix Agnus, owner/publisher of The Baltimore American and the staff, assets and resources divided between the two older papers that were now the largest in the city.

Agnus, who was born in Paris and having earlier served in the Imperial French Army of Napoleon III, was a major with the 165th New York Regiment and late in the war he was breveted a brigadier general in March 1865, and he continued using the title after retiring.

As the first non-resident owner of The American in its already long history, but not satisfied with this new property of The News headquarters, Munsey promptly tore it down just a few years later and rebuilt it in 1911 in larger and grander style as the then briefly tallest building in Baltimore, designed by the famed architectural firms of Baldwin & Pennington of Baltimore and McKim, Mead and White of New York City and named it The Munsey Building, with large ground-floor windows so passers-by could see the massive printing presses which printed the day's papers.

A series of format changes and staff realignments that alienated many readers under a new editing regime in 1977, along with new problems – delivering an afternoon paper through the after-work day traffic congestion ("drive time") to the outer suburbs, and changing evening leisure habits of the middle classes not allowing much time for paper reading – caused circulation to gradually decline after it had been the largest in the metro area.

The masthead was redesigned with a new vignette with the old Phoenix Shot Tower in the center and the city skyline buildings behind, surmounted by the traditional Hearst stylized eagle.

A huge anodized aluminum name plate was attached, visible from both streets and passing traffic, next to a new entrance lobby (with exhibits and display boards with history of the newspapers).