The Bainbridge Island Review was not the first newspaper on the island.

The first was The Golden West, published at Port Blakely in 1895. Then came the weekly BI Gazette in 1912. The monthly Eagle Harbor Pilot also started that year. The BI Beacon in Winslow started just before the Review in 1922. Some reports say that BI has had over 40 papers over the years.

That information comes from the book Bainbridge Through Bifocals by Elsie Frankland Marriott, published in 1941 and again in 1975.

The book says the Review got its start in the winter of 1924-25 as a newspaper at the high school. It was purchased by R.M. Hitchcock of Rolling Bay, who, assisted by Frances Niemeyer, edited at Rolling Bay and published in Seattle.

In spring of 1925, the Review was taken over by H.W. L. Niemeyer and Frances Niemeyer. The office later was moved from Rolling Bay to Port Blakely, where presses were installed. On Feb. 7, 1927, the plant was moved to Pleasant Beach.

Upon the death of her husband, Frances Niemeyer ran it until June of 1940, when it was sold to Mildred Logg Woodward and Claire Taft Peters.

Soon after Walt Woodward became involved, and Peters left the business. Milly Woodward and Peters were both teachers at Bainbridge High School in the 1960s.

David and Verda Averill bought the paper from the Woodwards in 1962, while Black Press purchased it in 1988.

Charlie Averill, son of the owners, said the Pleasant Beach location burned down sometime around the late 1940s, and the Winslow location near the ferry terminal burned down in 1964. That is why the newspaper’s archives lack early historical issues, he added.