Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 28. (1999) – Urbanizáció a dualizmus korában: konferencia Budapest egyesítésének 125. évfordulója tiszteletére a Budapesti Történeti Múzeumban

A VÁROS KULTURÁLIS ÉLETE ÉS A POLGÁROK - Buzinkay Géza: A budapesti sajtónegyed kialakulása 285-294

and to whom they could instantly sell their papers. It was in this environment where the publishers could transform press into real business, and they created combined methods of newspaper sales and various trading ideas. The press district on the Nagykörút was formed in the vicinity of today's Blaha Lujza Square, after the construction of the newspaper palace of Budapesti Hírlap was finished in 1893. This palace was different from the ones in Lipótváros, because it was only used for the newspaper industry, without any apartments to rent. The press empire of Jenő Rákosi turned this area into a press district for over ninety years: the newspaper palace itself survived the second world war and was transformed into the center of the communist party press after some reconstruction and expansion. Even today, it still functions as a press center. The Athenaeum Corporation, which had also moved out of the Inner City, settled in a building on the opposite side of Blaha Lujza Square in 1895. This company grew into the most integrated press business, as a part of Andor Miklós's Est (The Evening) Syndicate, by the end of WW I. The coffee house of the New York Palace soon became the number one literary coffee house of Pest, and as such, the permanent work place of journalists, publicists and reporters from the nearby editorial offices. Further down along Erzsébet Boulevard, a number of new publishing offices were set up from the beginning of the 20th century. The Otthon Kör (Home Circle) of writers and journalists built its own headquarters at 76 Dohány Street in 1898. When the large statue of Jenő Rákosi was erected on the small square along Erzsébet Boulevard opposite New York Palace in the early 1930's, the importance and role this district had in the press industry was emphasized even more. The second half of the 1930's brought an end to the colorful, often boisterous and dominating presence of the press, which was marked by the bankruptcy of the New York coffee house in 1936 and concluded by Decree No. 15 of 1938, which ordered the creation of a press chamber, the act of which was to eliminate the press along the Nagykörút first. 294