Pacific Press Publishing Association

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The Pacific Press Publishing Association, or Pacific Press for short, is one of two major Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses in North America. It was founded in 1874 by James White in Oakland, California, and is now located in Nampa, Idaho. Its titles include theological works as well as books on topics such as vegetarianism and home schooling. It owns its own printing operation.

The company has been the subject of at least two complaints dealing with sex discrimination, although the Seventh-day Adventist Church has an official policy of non-discrimination.

1 History
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

The Seventh-day Adventist church was formally organized and named in 1863. It began to realize its great mission to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Consequently, Elders J.N. Loughborough and D.T. Bourdeau came to California in 1866. And by May of 1871, there were 130 Adventists in California in the San Francisco and Santa Rosa area.

Late in 1872, James and Ellen White and their two sons, Willie and James Edson, came to California in the interest of the newly established work of the church on the Pacific Coast. Plans were laid for the establishment of a health institute and a branch publishing house.

But who would provide the funds? Elder White felt the urgency to establish a paper on the West Coast. But where? and how?

One day while crossing the ferry from San Francisco to Oakland, Mrs. White through inspiration spoke to her husband. “Somewhere in Oakland,” she said, “is the place to locate the paper.”

So, in 1874, James White began to publish the Signs of the Times in Oakland. It was printed under the aegis of “Elder James White, Editor and Proprietor.” The date of the first issue, June 4, 1874. The subscription price “$2.00 a year to all those able to pay the subscription price, and free to all others as far as the paper is sustained by donations of liberal friends of the cause.” These were the terms.

In the fall of 1874 at a camp meeting in Yountville, the president of the California Conference, Elder Loughborough, presented the need of a publishing house to the people assembled. That day $19,414 was given in gold and in pledges. There were less than 500 members in the congregation.

Soon, construction of a plant on Castro Street in Oakland began. This became known as the Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association. Equipment installed included a four-roller airspring drum cylinder press powered by an upright donkey engine, a paper cutter, a book trimmer, and some new type. Soon the Signs of the Times circulation had passed 4,000.

By 1887, the investment of Pacific Press had grown to $200,000, and the annual business totaled $150,000. From its beginning, the Press prospered. The press became well known on the West Coast for its quality work and prompt delivery of printing orders.

At the turn of the century, the subscription list of Signs of the Times was nearly 50,000. Retail sales of the book department amounted to $94,000. However, commercial work continued to occupy an important place in production. At times, denominational work was set aside to accommodate the commercial. It was felt that commercial work was necessary to keep the machinery going and profits coming in.

Mrs. White encouraged management to move away from the city, which was developing so rapidly around the plant. The town of Mountain View wished to raise its status in the state. The town fathers, upon hearing that the Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association in Oakland, which had gained a fair and growing reputation, was looking for a more rural atmosphere in which to establish itself, offered the Press five choice acres of land as well as a pair of lots for a church or meeting house.

The Press accepted the offer of the five acres of land, and in 1904 they moved to Mountain View. Along with the plant came the families. As a result, real estate in Mountain View began to advance, and area business grew.

A brick building soon took shape on the land donated by the town, and work began to come in from customers who patronized the plant in Oakland. Mrs. White implored Management to rely on God alone and give up the commercial work that had followed them from Oakland and had received priority over church publications.

On the morning of April 18, 1906 at 5:18 a great earthquake convulsed the whole bay area. The walls of the plant crumbled. Its offices were in shambles. Yet, within a few days the presses were running again.

On July 20, three months after the earthquake, on a Friday about midnight, a fire of undetermined origin broke through the roof in the northeast corner of the photoengraving room. In two hours the entire building had become a blazing inferno. Although the fire was finally subdued, it was not entirely extinguished, and it broke out a second time. This time scarcely a charred board remained. The paper stock of the plant, finished books, type plates, manuscripts – all were destroyed.

Suddenly, all the warnings of Mrs. White came to mind. And, soon after the fire, the Board of Directors stopped commercial work at the Pacific Press.

The cost-of-living index in the densely populated San Francisco Bay area made it almost impossible for young families to connect with the plant. This combined with other reasons made it expedient to move from Mountain View. In 1983, the Board of Trustees, along with the General Conference Committee voted that the plant should be sold and a move made to another area.

Nampa, Idaho was chosen as the location to build a new plant containing 180,780 square feet of floor space. Relocation to Idaho began in June 1984 and was completed in the late winter of 1984-85.

The move to Idaho has been an advantageous one. From the small beginning in 1874 when the first Signs of the Times was begun, with Elder James White editing the paper, setting the type, and printing the pages, and with his son acting as delivery boy, the plant has grown to its present status.

In 1994, Pacific Press began management of literature evangelist work with the establishment of the HHES Division. Currently, the HHES manages literature evangelist programs for Pacific Union, North Pacific Union, and Mid America Union.

The Retail Division for management of Adventist Book Centers was begun in 1996. The Division operates retail locations in the U.S. and Canada, and recently started a bookmobile program in the mountain states region.