CONSTRUCTION OF MILLER AND PAINE DEPARTMENT STORE, 1914. When the department store decided to replace its rented quarters at Thirteenth and O Streets with a new building, the property owner offered a 99-year lease to the ground but would not sell the site outright. The store cautiously built only two stories on the leased ground. Two years later in 1916, the company added eight stories on the next lot to the west, which it was able to purchase. Both structures were designed by the Lincoln architects Berlinghof and Davis, using buff brick and gleaming white terra-cotta trim. A sidewalk vendor is offering fresh fruits in front of the construction site.

Photographs taken on black and white glass negatives by African American photographer(s) John Johnson and Earl McWilliams from 1910 to 1925 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Douglas Keister has 280 5x7 glass negatives taken by these photographers. Larger scans available on request.