Continuing to rely economically on maize, local landowners funded the establishment of an agricultural laboratory in 1912. Pergamino's population, now mostly European immigrants and their children, nearly tripled to almost 30,000 between 1895 and 1914; this era saw the establishment of important Basque, Piemontese, Provençal and Lebanese communities, as well as the inauguration of the "Hotel Roma" in 1913, one of the best-known art nouveau structures in the area. One immigrant from the Piedmont, Enrique Venini, founded Pergamino's first newspaper, "La Opinión", in 1917. The city's growing immigrant communities also included a sizable contingent of British railway engineers and other technicians associated with the rapidly expanding railways. A number of these staffers and the Central Argentine Railway's director, Ronald Leslie, organized Pergamino's first football team on 18 November 1918, christening it in honor of a British Field Marshal famed for his roles in the Boer War and in World War I, Gen. Douglas Haig. Club Atlético Douglas Haig has enjoyed regional prominence in the Argentine B League.