The Advocate building was built in 1868 at 222 South Main Street as a three-story brick structure. J. F. Gotshall, who had become editor of the Advocate newspaper in 1862 while it was published in the Siegel building, moved into the new building in 1868. The building served as Gotshall's residence and housed a grocery and dry goods store as well as a bookstore where McGulley readers were sold. After several years Gotshall became sole owner of the Advocate. In 1888, H. C. Voris began work in the Advocate office as shop foreman, and two years later Gotshall sold the building and the paper to him. Voris renamed the paper The Waterloo Republican and remodeled the building to include space for the post office while he also served as postmaster; the post office had previously been across the street in the building later known as Rex’s Corner. For many years the building was home to the Republican and to the Voris family, who lived on the second floor. H. C. Voris died in July 1941, one year after marking his fiftieth anniversary as an editor, and his son Bryant B. Voris continued as editor from 1941 until his death in 1962. Bryant’s son Robert then became editor and Bryant’s widow Myrtle became publisher. In June 1952, The Waterloo Republican began broadcasting a live fifteen-minute local news program directly from its office through radio station KSGM in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, with an initial special broadcast featuring Bryant Voris, Elmo Donze, Arthur Heinrich, Joseph Tucker, and Bob Voris. In 1979, The Waterloo Republican purchased The Waterloo Times and became The Republic-Times. Robert Voris kept the newspaper prominent into the early 1990s, and the Voris family sold its interest in 1990 to Metro Publications and Offset Printing of St. Louis, after which the parent company of the Belleville News-Democrat eventually took ownership. The Republic-Times became locally owned again in 2007 and moved to 205 West Mill Street. A separate building just north at 216 South Main was incorporated into the Advocate building in 1983 after the Voris family bought it to expand the printing business; before that merger it had housed several early businesses, including Wallhaus Hardware. In 2004-2005, First National Bank of Waterloo, located just south across the alley at 228 South Main Street, bought the Advocate building, demolished it, and put up a new operations building with a similar look, preserving the old ball hitch. The property’s later ownership by First National Bank was fitting because H. C. Voris had been one of the bank’s charter officers when it was organized in 1912.