herr2ck: Sidney Trip, pt. 3 - South and West of Courthouse Square

February 2025.

This post continues where part two left off, finishing Sidney’s architecture beyond its courthouse square.

316 ½ South Main Street

This was on an extensively altered and almost unrecognizable Queen Anne/Shingle house, but the crappy vinyl siding yields to the original wood shakes on this tower.

Holy Angels Catholic Church

Historic photograph of the church. (Pinterest)

Despite this church being Sidney’s most elaborate by far, I couldn’t find any history about it online, much to my irritation. All I know is that it was being built in 1891, based on the datestone. Holy Angels is a very intricate brick Gothic Revival church with stone ornamentation. Its facade was restored in the late 1990s by Freytag & Associates.

I happened to be there right as everyone was arriving for Mass:

From the rear, with its secondary tower (odd) and apse:

East facade and stained glass windows:

The corner entrance:

Datestone and stonework of the tower:

South rose window:

I wonder what’s up with this weird projection here.

The school--I would imagine this to have been built a few decades later or so:

As you can tell, I kinda meant for this one to have its own post, but I didn’t expect there to be no history online.

St. John’s Lutheran Church

St. John’s Lutheran is an interesting example of late Gothic Revival architecture incorporating Art Deco elements. The congregation was founded in 1840, and this is their third church building. The first was a small frame cabin built by the Associate Presbyterians in 1835. The second was a larger Gothic Revival building. The church’s website includes a picture, but it’s such low resolution that I can hardly discern any features.

The second St. John’s Lutheran church building. (St. John’s Lutheran website)

The church again outgrew its second structure, and they built the standing building in 1927. Again, I find it to be an interesting combination of literal Gothic detail with Art Deco articulation. I thought the sun reflecting on the plastic sheets in front of the windows from an angle was interesting:

Old National Guard Armory/Old YMCA/Monarch Machine Tool Company/Cameo Theater/Shelby County Senior Center

This building has had many owners over its 110 years of life. It was built in 1913 as an armory for the Ohio National Guard, which operated until 1968. The building was purchased by the city that year and leased to Sidney’s YMCA until they moved to a different building in 1974. Then, the Monarch Machine Tool Company renovated the old armory in 1975 for manufacturing purposes. It became the Cameo Theater for a time, and the building became the county’s senior center in 1997.

215 West Court Street

I like this eclectic Queen Anne residence and its carriage house.

Sidney Police Department

Sidney’s police department is a cool Art Deco-inspired Postmodern building. I'm guessing it was built between 1980-2000.

Sidney Municipal Building

This Art Deco structure was built in 1939. It will be partially demolished for additions and alterations starting this year.

Canal Place Apartments

My photos are just as bad as these apartments apparently are. I just thought this building was interesting because it is so tall and large in comparison to most of Sidney’s other architecture. It was built in 1915 in a rather bare Commercial style.

125 West Poplar Street

I like this small Italianate building’s bright paint job. All of its ornamentation is intact, even the pillars of the original storefronts, but the windows and doors have been changed.

127 West Poplar Street

This building houses The Bridge, an upscale historic restaurant that references the famous Big Four bridge in Sidney.

108-116 West Poplar Street

This large Italianate building is one of my favorites for all of the wrong reasons. Each section has been altered in unique ways, creating a very discordant final result from what it probably originally looked like. Additionally, the building progresses from highly modified and clean on its right end to remarkably intact yet poorly maintained on its left.

The rightmost section (108) is in the best repair, but it is likewise the most altered. It retains its hood molds and cornice like the others, but the vinyl windows and first floor are modern changes.

The second from right and middle section present as one cohesive unit. The windows have been replaced too, but this time by shoddy siding and tiny rectangles of glass instead of the large, well-fitting vinyl windows on the rightmost section. It was painted, but it seems more faded and dull. The original glass block bulkheads of the storefronts are visible (but painted over), and the structure below is unoriginal but dated.

The section second from left retains its original wooden windows, but they are in poor condition. Its paint is cracking off. The storefront is altered in a similar pattern to its eastern neighbors.

The leftmost part of this building is remarkably intact. The original windows and storefront remain, but they have been painted and are likewise in poor condition. I believe this part is abandoned.

Sidney Theater/Majestic Theater/Ohio Theater

Historic photo of the theater’s interior. (Heritage Ohio)

The Sidney Theater was built as the Majestic Theater in 1921, hosting both movie and theater productions. It was built by C. B. DeWeese, who may have been inspired by Dayton’s Victoria Theater. The theater was renamed to the Ohio Theater in 1941, when it was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management. It became a movie theater in the late 1960s and operated until 2002, when the building closed. It sat unused until 2006, when someone purchased the theater and did some interior demolition work. The nonprofit Raise the Roof for the Arts bought the Sidney Theater in 2009, which restored the building and operates it today.

Here is the Sidney Theater today: