The San Angelo Standard

Before the Standard, the Handbook of Texas says, the county's first newspaper was the Concho Times, which began publishing in April 1880 and was edited by James Kibee until 1884. Harte-Hanks acquired the Standard in 1920. Other media followed: radio station KGKL was broadcasting as early as 1924, and a television station with the same call letters went on the air in 1952. By 1989 San Angelo had eight radio stations, and Simmons Cablevision offered thirty-five channels to 29,000 customers in and around the city.

What the plaque says

In 1884 J. G. Murphy and W. A. Guthrie, co-workers at the "San Angelo Enterprise", bought the weekly newspaper operation and began the "Standard". The first four-page edition was published on May 3 of that year. Early stories included coverage of frontier scalpings and the life of the Fort Concho soldier. The "Standard" became an eight-page newspaper within six months and continued as a weekly until 1905, when the first issue of the "Evening Daily Standard" appeared. The newspaper and its leaders have played major roles in the development of San Angelo and surrounding areas (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 0.3 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 0.6 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• Concho River Walk — 0.6 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.
• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 0.7 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church — steps away
• Charles B. Metcalfe — steps away
• Original Tom Green County — steps away
• Tom Green, Confederate General — steps away