Published August 20, 2026 | Updated August 20, 2026

Sitting across from the Gene Leahy Mall is a five-story brick building whose western wall serves as an advertisement for the entire city. Among its many vintage-inspired ads is one that reads “Omaha” which has since shown up on t-shirts, artwork, and tourists’ photographs.

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.

Born in 1943 and raised on a farm, Mommer began working at a seed company as a bookkeeper in Dike, Iowa. One of just two students in the applied arts program to graduate with a 4.0 grade point average, she graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in interior design. She bought the seed business which she had grown to the largest direct-sale seed company of its kind with 155 employees under her leadership. She later divorced and moved to Omaha in 1978, where she opened Remains to Be Seen antiques and gift store in the Old Market Passageway.

Briccetti, meanwhile, a native of New York, was born in 1936 and attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. After working as a music director and associate conductor in Florida, Indiana, and Ohio, he 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.”

She hired R.L. DeBuse Construction Co., which specialized in renovations and re-use projects, to create multi-level offices that included balconies and mezzanines. The interior was gutted except for the original brick and wood beams. She did, however, incorporate a number of salvaged items from other structures including doorknobs from the WOW Building, light fixtures from Orchard and Wilhelm Building, walnut paneling from Barmettler Biscuit Co., and a streetlamp from Boys Town. To decorate the exterior, iron gates were crafted from balcony fixtures at the Coronado Apartments while wrought-iron furniture from Percy Roche sat on the front porch and a small, cantilevered balcony was installed and overlooked an enclosed patio.

In order to complete its transformation, Mommer hired nellie macCallum, a partner at the advertising agency galen & nellie, to touch up existing ghost signs and design new ones that appeared distressed on its exterior walls in 1981. MacCallum referred to advertisements from old telephone directories as inspiration. Among the most notable are one that reads “Regis Hotel” on the eastern wall and another that spells “Omaha” on its western wall in big block letters. During an interview with Omaha Magazine, macCallum said: “That nice beautiful ‘Omaha’ on the west side—that, I literally ripped out of the telephone directory. I just loved the look of it. It really matched the age of the character of the building.” She also said that she was very proud that it had come to symbolize “the old Omaha.” Mommer, meanwhile, was awarded a bronze plaque by Landmarks Inc. in 1982. She said that it was her hope that the renovation would inspire others to do the same thing.

Both galen & nellie and Peschio & Co., a real estate company, joined Billie Lee Associates interior design firm as occupants. Despite helping to revive downtown, Mommer and Briccetti divorced in 1985 and moved elsewhere.

Over the course of his career, Briccetti conducted 50 orchestras all over the world including the New York Philharmonic and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and served as the music director of the orchestra in Bergamo, Italy for five years until 1993. Briccetti died in Italy in 1999 at the age of 63. Mommer, meanwhile, traveled to California and later to New York City for a time where she produced a play before becoming an artist adept in working with different mediums including murals and mosaics. She also worked as an artist and food critic in Mexico before returning to the artist community where she lived in Wimberley, Texas. She passed away at 81 in 2025.

The Riley Building was subsequently purchased by galen & nellie in 1988 at which point they remodeled and expanded their offices. During that time, they shared the building with Montessori on the Mall. The building was listed for sale yet again in 1993 and was considered for the wrecking ball a year later in order to make way for a new federal courthouse that ultimately was built at 17th and Douglas. After the ad agency moved out, the architecture firm, Ciaccio Dennell Group, moved in. Nineteen years after announcing plans to convert the upper floors into apartments, it finally happened when they turned the space into 18 apartment units in 1998.

The architectural firm gutted the first floor, in order to create a bank lobby designed to resemble ones from the early 1900s with globe lights, wood paneling, etched glass, and marble columns. A drive-thru window was also created on the western end that featured a canopy decorated with rosettes matching those on the front of the building. The first floor has served as the home to Pinnacle Bank’s downtown branch since 2003.

All of the remaining turn-of-the-century buildings on Douglas Street were nearly erased. The Riley was spared and remains one of the most distinctive buildings in the city with its iconic faux ghost signs. The mural that reads “Omaha” has also made its mark on the city’s skyline, and more than 40 years later, it still watches over the heart of downtown that Briccetti and Mommer hoped to reawaken.

Omaha Exploration, 2026. All rights reserved. Excerpts and links are welcome with full credit given to Omaha Exploration and a link back to the original content.