Sidney E. Rochelle photographs

Sidney Rochelle was born in 1878 in Durham County and attended Durham's first public graded school, located in the Wright Factory on West Main Street. He served in the Spanish-American War, surviving a battle in the Philippines that saw 80% of his company killed. He returned to Durham in 1901 and took over his deceased father's fish stand at the old city market located at the south end of Church Street--later the location of Union Station. When the city market moved to the new municipal building/Academy of Music, Rochelle left the fish business. He began working with a man named HA Gaskins, who ran a phonograph, music, bicycle, lock, and gun store. In 1910, he opened a gun, bicycle, battery, and motorcycle shop at the northeast corner of Corcoran and Parrish Streets. Rochelle became the first Harley-Davidson dealer in North Carolina and organized an early motorcycle club that traveled all over the United States. Rochelle supplied motorcycles to local businesses for their deliveries and organized bicycle outings for Durham youth. In 1912, Rochelle and his wife moved into a house at 1714 Chapel Hill Road. He retired around 1954 and died in 1960 in Durham.