It's hard to put your finger on when The Beaufort Gazette really left Beaufort.
Was it when the press moved to Bluffton? When the staff moved to Bluffton? Or now, when the Salem Road office has been sold?
The Island Packet has a report on the sale of the building and land to O.C. Welch, who owns the neighboring property; you can read the story here.
To be sure, Lowcountry Newspaper (the name of the local McClatchy division that runs the Packet and Gazette) is maintiaing a small local office on Boundary Street that is 10% of the size of its former office on Salem Road.
One thing is clear, with Welch not having too much of an idea of what he'll put on the land and the property having been available for years, you can bet the price paid wasn't the original asking amount.
This certainly stirs up some emotions in me, a former Gazette employee. It indeed is the end of an era.