2110 A. Street (Sidles House)

Current owners: Jeff and Lynette Heller
Built in 1913
F.C. Fiske, architect

Estimated Time to Tour: 10 min

Key Things to See: 

★ Stuccoed soffits and window alignment under wide eaves—an unusual and eye-catching design detail.

★ Built for Harry E. Sidles, auto pioneer and Buick magnate—with ties to Nebraska’s transportation history.

Fred Fiske must have been pleased with his design for this house since he chose it to illustrate an advertisement for his architectural practice in 1915. The builder was W.N. Parks, at the estimated cost of $10,000 ($315,000 today). That figure serves as a reminder such prices may have commonly been underestimated, since the building permit fee rose with the price.) The stuccoed house stretches approximately seventy feet wide. Fiske added the earth-bound effect of the long house by placing the tops of the upper windows right at the wide eaves, which have the unusual treatment of stucco on the underside of the soffits. The carriage porch on the east side uses an archway similar to the arches of the front porch. 

The house was built for Harry E. Sidles, who began his business career at age twenty in 1895 selling bicycles, sporting goods, and phonographs. These products led, more or less logically, to Sidles’ diverse and lucrative interests including auto sales, airports, a Colorado resort, theaters, radio broadcasting, and banking. He was a pioneer in the automotive business, switching from bicycles to cars in 1903 and founding Nebraska Buick Company with Charles Stuart in 1909. Their company became a multi-state Buick wholesaler. The downtown headquarters of that business stands a full five stories tall at the southwest corner of 13th and Q St. The house was later the residence of Chancellor Clifford Hardin of the University of Nebraska, who became Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet of President Nixon.