The Riley Building was constructed in 1889 by Alden K. Riley, a lawyer and real estate investor. He built it as a warehouse to serve Jobbers Canyon to the east. It is notable for having the first hydraulic-powered freight elevator in the city. The architects, F.R. Smith and F.C. Ledebrink, designed the building at 1012-1016 Douglas Street with the two massive arched windows in a Richardsonian Romanesque style. The building was constructed using Kasota limestone and St. Louis pressed brick.
Over the course of its life, the Riley Building was used for a variety of purposes and was occupied by a number of businesses including Churchill Pump Co., Ribbel Paper & Woodenware Co., Fisk Tire Co., Nielsen Book Bindery and Midwest Asbestos and later Midwest Insulation. After sitting vacant for a number of years, it found new life after Billie Lee Mommer and her husband Thomas Briccetti purchased it in 1979.
Mommer, the owner of an Iowa seed company with an interior design degree, had moved to Omaha a year earlier and opened Remains to Be Seen antiques and gift store in the Old Market Passageway. Briccetti, meanwhile, a native of New York, made his way to Omaha in 1975, where he oversaw the transformation of the Omaha Symphony from a community orchestra to a full-time orchestra.
After getting married, they bought the Riley Building in 1979 and began renovating the first two floors into office space with plans to convert the upper floors into apartments that overlooked Central Park Mall (present day Gene Leahy Mall).
At the time, they said: “We love downtown Omaha. We love antiquities, and we enjoy the challenge of restoration.” They continued: “The Riley allows us to indulge in all of these and to be a part of the reawakening of the heart of a city.”…