I am a lifelong techno-nerd; musician, and electronics engineer who has made a decades-long career in the audio end of the Film and Music realms - so:

My Inner Ear is trying to imagine what an an amazing sound all that Machinery must have made while everyone was busy hammering out their work.

Having owned my share of teletypes, flexowriters, and computer console typewriters - and (years ago) having been in a large electromechanical telephone central office - the sound must have been fascinating.

Well, fascinating to an old audio geek like Moi.

And you just know you would be the one who had "just bought" the old version a day before the new one was announced!

The typewriters here are Underwood No. 5's, whereas the ones in the 1911 ad below are Underwood No. 4's. I wonder if No. 4 owners camped outside typewriter stores when the Underwood 5 came out.

It looks like a typewriter repair shop that also sells used office furniture.

Churn out "personalized" form letters by the hundreds? Press releases or vote/funding appeals? Operator types in name and address manually and then lets it rip?

Are they early teletype machines? Receiving results from around the country on election days? Maybe that's why they face in in groups of four - they were just receivers, no typing on them.

Wow! Someone took the power cords off all those typwriters - now how will they connect to the interwebs?

Was this the reporters' rooms after it was over, or what?

Okay you "vintage equipment" Shorpyites. Are those really electric typewriters? I note the levers and linkages going below the tabletops and what appear to be electric motors underneath. Also see the railing with the multiple electrical cords draped over it. Also note the extra length of the carriages, almost like the ones on the old billing machines. And finally, each grouping of four machines is clustered alluding to the fact that four people crowded together in that one small hole in the center to do their reporting.

[These Underwoods didn't have anything to do with reporting. Who can fill in the blanks? - Dave]

Interesting "typewriter cozies." Given he date of the photo, I'm assuming that they were made of oilcloth or something like it.

This was on the old bowling alley area, I presume. It doesn't look as pristine or exciting as it had. In fact, it's starting to look a bit run down and unkempt. Too bad.

[Your chronology is backwards. This is five years before the bowling alleys. - Dave]

Wrong again, eh! Ah well, and so it goes.

Some history on the old convention hall at Liberty Market can be found here.

[Also right here on Shorpy (scroll down to the comments). - Dave]

The white spots on several desks, note the railing to the left, roosting pigeons perhaps? Obviously this room was a storage area.

There appear to be electric motors housed in the wooden typewriter cabinets. The machines look to be the standard Underwoods of the time and not motorized in any way. Any ideas?