The Biddeford Daily Journal began as a weekly abolitionist paper. Saco publishers Cowen and Noyes purchased the Eastern Journal, which became the Union Journal in 1858, then the Biddeford Daily Journal, and in 1884 took that name formally; it is now known as the Journal Tribune. Both Cowen and Noyes served in the Civil War. Cowen, a cavalryman, contracted malaria and died. Noyes was taken prisoner after staying behind Southern lines to aid Union wounded and spent most of the war in the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. The newspaper had several homes, and some were destroyed by fire, making early copies rare. Portland architect John Calvin Stevens designed this building in 1906. It also housed the telephone exchange and the French newspaper La Justice.