Omaha Exploration

Today’s exploration was originally going to focus on a group of buildings that, against all odds, continue to stand on 11th and Douglas Streets. After starting, I decided to pull in the reins and focus on just one of these buildings. While the Christian Specht Building tends to get the lion’s share of attention, I have always been fond of the Coffee Building on 11th between Douglas and Dodge Streets. We’ll cover the other three – maybe four – at another time.

We can thank Francis Doolittle Parmer for this structure which is one of just a few old commercial buildings outside of the Old Market and Millwork Commons that still stands. Francis was born in South Dakota in 1870 and relocated to Omaha with his family in 1899. At that time, he got into the coffee business with his father Marcus who earlier established the first private and later the first national bank in the Dakota territory. While the son seemed to thrive in the coffee business, the father preferred banking.

Francis started his business at 13th and Howard Streets selling coffee for an East Coast company on commission before opting to buy the coffee green. That allowed him to roast the coffee and sell it under his own brand rather than theirs. He expanded his line of products to include tea, spices, extracts and baking powder. Its popularity led him to incorporate the business and using the additional capital to install a roasting plant, coffee mill, spice grinder and baking powder mixer. The company was particularly well known for its “Diamond P” brand. 

The F. D. Parmer Company employed salesmen to cover territory which occasionally extended to points out of town. Soon his products could be found on the shelves of markets in not only Omaha but all of Nebraska, western Iowa, northern Kansas, portions of Wyoming and South Dakota. By 1906 he constructed the two-story building in the Renaissance Revival style at 112 S 11th Street. The following year he added the third floor which gave it the distinct look we all recognize today with its semicircular transoms, corbelled brick in the parapet and its unique windows on all three floors.

After the expansion was completed, an advertisement in the Omaha Daily News boasted that the F. D. Parmer Company was the only exclusive wholesale coffee and tea house in Omaha while inviting those interested to visit its new facility. In 1914 Charles E. Olson of the Olson Coffee Company joined the firm and it became the Parmer-Olson Company. Charles was named its vice president while Francis remained as its president. The new company installed new cutting-edge machinery in 1916 which cleaned, blended and roasted the green coffee in addition to weighing and packaging it for shipment.

Just one year later Francis sold the business to Charles who was elected the company’s president and treasurer. He renamed it the Olson Coffee Company and developed its most recognized variety, Happy Hollow Coffee, around 1916 which was advertised as being the “Best in the West”. Olson claimed that the coffee was bought from the finest coffee producing countries and after being transported to Omaha, it was tested for quality before being roasted. Apparently 95% of grocery stores in the area sold it.

The Olson Coffee Company came to an end in 1933 after the Atwood Coffee Company of Minneapolis leased the building. I’m not sure what happened to Olson but I’m speculating that the Great Depression may have played a role. While Atwood was founded in 1905, it would later become McGarvey-Atwood Coffee before being sold to Sara Lee in 1991. It’s run in Omaha appeared to be relatively brief as the building was sold to Douglas Coffee in 1935. Douglas, which primarily roasted and blended coffee for hotels and restaurant, was founded in 1920 and was acquired by Butter Nut in 1962. That year marked the end of its run as a coffee plant.

Back to the man who gave us this wonderful structure in 1906. In addition to running his coffee business, Francis Parmer, bred hogs on his residence west of Dundee. One his boars even won first place in an exhibition in San Francisco. In 1917, following his departure from the coffee company, he transitioned into automobiles first as a salesman before opening his own dealership in Council Bluffs. He returned to Omaha in 1928 after he was appointed the exclusive distributor for Durant automobiles in Nebraska and Iowa. He opened his showroom at 2421 Farnam Street. Unable to pay its debts, the Durant Motor Company folded in 1932. In his next life, he got into the real estate business. Francis Parmer passed away in 1961. 

After Charles Olson left the coffee business in 1933, he returned to work at Paxton & Gallagher where he was previously employed from 1905 to 1912. When he returned in 1935 he was placed in charge of retail in its manufacturing division which included Butter Nut products. Charles E. Olson passed away in 1967. 

Photos of the various residential units courtesy of PJ Morgan Real Estate.

The Happy Hollow Coffee Building as it became known was listed for sale in 1971 and again in 1981 with nothing showing in the newspaper archives in between. It must have been used as storage or offices during that time frame as it was purchased from Tires Plus in 1982. At that time the intent was to convert it into three 1,500 sq ft luxury apartments with the top floor being a penthouse with a rooftop garden. An elevator was even installed in a brick silo next to the building. Those plans must have never come to fruition as it was advertised as office and retail space after that. Beeper Communications Inc was operating out of the building in 1989.

Photos of the various residential units courtesy of PJ Morgan Real Estate.

After that, Todd D. Simon, the CEO of Omaha Steaks, purchased the building and turned it into his personal residence. He also purchased and renovated the Specht building around the corner on Douglas Street. 

Photos of the various residential units courtesy of PJ Morgan Real Estate.

Despite at least two attempts to tear it down and an endless cycle of development surrounding it, the Coffee Building, which was once featured in Architectural Digest, still stands. In a nod to its past, it proudly displays the names of the company’s that operated out of it as well as its most popular brand: Parmer, Douglas and Happy Hollow. Curiously, any mention of Olson Coffee Company is absent.

The building largely looks like the way it did when it was built nearly 120 years ago. The only visible difference from the exterior is the front entrance which used to be enclosed but not serves as an open front porch. An iron gate was added to the front porch giving it a gardenesque feel while separating it from a busy sidewalk that now connects the Gene Leahy Mall to Steelhouse and the Capitol District.

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