• Built: 1876
• Address: 3706 North 24th Street
• Architecture: Italianate
• Demolished: 1926

Built at the height of an early boom in Omaha, the McCreary Mansion was built three miles north of the city in the mid-1870s. After moving to the Nebraska Territory from Ohio in 1860, the early career of John McCreary (1832-1908) was spent building telegraph lines across the Midwest. In addition to lines he laid across Ohio and Kentucky, he was involved in laying the Union Pacific telegraph from Nebraska to Salt Lake City. He married Mary Creighton, the sister of Edward and John Creighton, in that family’s native Ohio.

The year after his mansion was finished, McCreary retired to his estate and focused on improving his land. Located immediately north of John Redick’s estate, McCreary had ten acres of land. Located along Saunders Street, McCreary started with a two story Italianate style home that had a dozen rooms, just outside the city limits. Popular Omaha builder Francis Dellone and his brother designed and built the home for McCreary. In the 1890s, McCreary added another floor to the house for a total of 15 rooms.

McCreary was never settled. Towards the late 1880s, he left Omaha for Wyoming, where he launched a ranch of almost 3,000 acres with 500 head of cattle on it. McCreary died in 1908. A generous benefactor of North Omaha’s Sacred Heart Church, he was buried at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery.

In 1905, McCreary sold his home and it became the Swedish Mission Hospital. Over the next two decades, the institution was a landmark in North Omaha. With fifteen rooms in three wards, they added a separate three story building, allowing the hospital to treat 600 patients annually.

As a full-service ward, the hospital helped people deal with a lot of tragedies. However, in 1913 it faced tragedy of its own when the Easter Sunday tornado swept down on the facility. After the damage, the newspaper reported that several people there were wounded from the destruction of the tornado when it hit the building. Apparently only one person died from their wounds though.

In 1926, the hospital came under formal control of of the Swedish Evangelical Covenant Church and was renamed the Evangelical Covenant Hospital.

In 1931, the Evangelical Convenant Church renovated the hospital, building a large addition and renovating the existing hospital. Between it and the neighboring Omaha University campus next door to the south, the neighborhood surrounding 24th and Evans Street didn’t seem to be suffering the Great Depression harshly.

However, between the mortgage debt and decreasing numbers of patients in the 1930s, the Evangelical Covenant Hospital hemorrhaged money and couldn’t stay open. A last minute bid to save the it didn’t work, and in 1938 the church sold the hospital to the Salvation Army for $50,000.

That same year, the Omaha University campus moved to west Omaha, where it’s located still today.

The old McCreary Mansion and the rest of the hospital was renamed the Booth Memorial Hospital by the Salvation Army. It stayed that way until 1968, when the facility was abandoned and moved further west. After sitting empty for six years the former Swedish Memorial Hospital including the McCreary Mansion was demolished in 1974.

In the 1990s, the Salvation Army constructed a new building on the site. Today, there is no historical marker there though, and few students of history remember the contributions of John McCreary to the history of North Omaha.

You Might Like…

• A History of North 24th Street
• A History of Mansions in North Omaha
• A History of the Salvation Army Booth Memorial Hospital in North Omaha

MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF KOUNTZE PLACE

General: Kountze Place | Kountze Park | North 16th Street | North 24th Street | Florence Boulevard | Wirt Street | Emmet Street | Binney Street | 16th and Locust Historic District
Houses: Charles Storz House | Anna Wilson’s Mansion | McCreary Mansion | McLain Mansion | Redick Mansion | John E. Reagan House | George F. Shepard House | Burdick House | 3210 North 21st Street | 1922 Wirt Street | University Apartments
Churches: First UPC/Faith Temple COGIC | St. Paul Lutheran Church | Hartford Memorial UBC/Rising Star Baptist Church | Immanuel Baptist Church | Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church | Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary | Trinity Methodist Episcopal | Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist Church | Greater St. Paul COGIC
Education: Omaha University | Presbyterian Theological Seminary | Lothrop Elementary School | Horace Mann Junior High
Hospitals: Salvation Army Hospital | Swedish Hospital | Kountze Place Hospital
Events: Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition | Greater America Exposition | Riots
Businesses: Hash House | 3006 Building | Grand Theater | 2936 North 24th Street | Corby Theater

Listen to the North Omaha History Podcast show #4 about the history of the Kountze Place neighborhood »

BONUS PIC!