A History of Apartments in North Omaha

In the 1890s, builders started putting up apartments in North Omaha. Steel was becoming an effective construction tool, affordable and plentiful enough for massive new buildings. Landowners were also learning they could make good profit from apartments. Meanwhile, renters were looking for places they could afford that were fancy enough to justify their brand-new middle class incomes. The first apartments in the entire city of Omaha were built in along North 16th Street, then called Sherman Avenue.

*This is the Bretnor Court and Rosewell Court apartments at 2536 N. 16th Street. Demonstrating a high commitment to the Garden Beautiful Movement, their grand lawns and bright units were popular.*

This article features some of the apartments that made up North Omaha’s great construction boom, and highlights what’s left for Omahans and tourists to see today. I’m also including any type of apartments here, like flats, rowhouses, duplexes, fourplexes, and other multifamily units.

This is a history, too, so you’ll learn a little bit about how, when, where, and why these buildings were important to North Omaha in the past, and why they’re important for the future of the community.

What Went Before

The first building in a heavily-travelled apartment district, The Sherman was built to remind people of classical Greek and Roman temples. Located at 2501 N. 16th Street, it has been continuously in use as apartments since it was built.

Between 1880 and 1962, more than 900 apartment buildings were constructed in Omaha, with more than half of them north of Dodge Street in North Omaha. According to the Nebraska State Historical Society, almost 500 historical apartment buildings still exist across the city today. However, of the approximately 450 apartment buildings in North Omaha before 1962, fewer than 125 stand today. Of that number, I approximate the remainder east of North 30th Street at fewer than 100 total.

Styles

Strehlow Terrace, 2024 North 16th Street, North Omaha, Nebraska — This 1920s postcard shows the Strehlow Terrace Apartments, a high-end complex built in 1905 in North Omaha. Located at 2024 North 16th Street, it was a highlight of North 16th Street and recognized as one of the finest apartment complexes in Omaha. Today, its listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

There are several styles of apartment buildings. The earliest were tenements and flats. Then, early apartment buildings were vernacular, made in plain, easy-to-build styles that became common. The Garden City Movement brought sophistication to apartment design, and the apartment building boom spread buildings wide and far across North Omaha. High rise apartments were built in North Omaha after World War II.

This section highlights a few different styles across the community. Popular streets like North 16th, Florence Boulevard, North 24th, Lake Street, Fort Street, and Ames Avenue will come up repeatedly, while neighborhoods like the Near North Side, 24th and Lake, 30th and Hamilton, Prospect Hill, Bedford Place, Florence, Benson and the Florence Field will come up.

Style 1: Original Apartments

Built as the Matburn Apartments in the 1890s, this building on the corner of North 22nd and Burdette was demolished in 1970. — *Built as the Malburn Apartments in the 1890s, this building on the corner of North 22nd and Burdette was demolished in 1970. They were some of the first apartments in Omaha.*

As the original and longest-standing apartment building in Omaha, The Sherman at 2501 N. 16th Street has an architectural and historic legacy that’s vital to the city’s history. Built in 1897 by a businessman, the building was designed in the Neo-Classical style in anticipation of the popularity of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, which was almost entirely in that style. The building has been used its entire life as apartments.

Style 2: Flats

24th and Paul Street, Omaha Nebraska, 1950s — *This was a grocery store, Hall’s Confectionary shop, and “St. Louis Flat” style apartments at N. 24th and Paul Streets in the 1950s.*

Before 1910, Omaha was a popular place to build what were called “St. Louis Flats”. This style of apartments had commercial stores on the first floor and apartments on top, and were very popular along commercial strips that were developing between 1890 and 1920.

Despite being everywhere across North Omaha for more than 50 years, today there are few of these buildings left. Some examples dot the community though, including the building at 2506 N. 24th Street. Once home to a shoe store, barber shop, and several other businesses, the storefront here now houses Loves Jazz and Art Center. However, the second floor was an apartment for a longtime.

Style 3: Rowhouses

The Broomfield Rowhouse at 2502 Lake Street was designed by Clarence Wigington and built in 1913. — *The Broomfield Rowhouse at 2502 Lake Street was designed by Clarence Wigington for a Good Housekeeping magazine competition and built in 1913 by a notorious North Omaha crime boss.*

During that same time, rowhouses were becoming popular in Omaha, too. In Omaha, rowhouses are buildings with multiple apartments in them that are joined next to other buildings with apartments in them. There are one or more apartments in each building, which share walls and have different street addresses.

According to local experts, “a rowhouse is defined as a structure comprised of a series of attached dwellings. Rowhouses can be organized in a variety of ways. Some of the more common configurations include alignment along a street, L and U-shaped courtyards, and the street-court complex, alignment along a narrow, mid-block street.

There are a few great examples of rowhouses in North Omaha. They include the Free Classic Queen Anne style Memmen Apartments at 2214, 2216, 2218 and 2220 Florence Boulevard, which were designed by an architect named William Elliott Findley and built in 1889. Another fine example is the Broomfield Rowhouse at 2502 Lake Street, as well as the 1890 rowhouses at 1001 N. 29th Street.

The Broomfield Rowhouse was designed by North Omaha’s architect, Clarence Wigington, as a simple rectangle with a flat roof that has fine Craftsman style details throughout the building. Wigington also designed a missing element of the Broomfield Rowhouse, which was called the Crutchfield Rowhouse and was demolished by the City of Omaha.

Style 4: Modern Apartments

The federally-funded Logan Fontenelle Public Housing Projects were built in 1938-39 to house low-income residents. They were demolished in the late 1990s. — The federally-funded Logan Fontenelle Public Housing Projects were apartments built in 1938-39 to house low-income residents. They were demolished in the late 1990s. They were located near N. 24th and Paul Streets.

Middle class and working class people lived throughout North Omaha because apartments were available, well-appointed, and oftentimes affordable. Many of them had a streetcar right outside their house or nearby, and because of that apartment dwellers didn’t need to own a car. Some apartments featured double-decker porches with a lot of windows and large living spaces, while other early amenities included electricity, phones and skylights.

North 16th Street was clustered with fine places to live, while North 24th and Florence Boulevard were clustered with well-appointed smaller apartments. As North Omaha grew to the west, North 40th, North 60th, Ames Avenue, Benson, and Northwest Radial were all populated with apartments, while the Walnut Hill neighborhood was built out with many fine apartments.

Between 1910 and 1917, more than 100 apartment buildings were put up across the whole city. Rowhouses lost their popularity and people started seeking large apartments. Describing the Near North Side, the Nebraska State Historical Society says, “a significant number of apartments were constructed in this area by the 1920s, although this was only half as many as were constructed in central Omaha.”

Three sets of apartments remaining in North Omaha today reflect the community’s developments in this style: The Strehlow Terrace at 2010 N. 16th Street, built between 1906 and 1916; The Margaret, built in 1915 at 2103 N. 16th Street; and the Allas Apartments at 1609 Binney Street, designed in 1903 but built in 1919. Although not nearly as fancy as those, the Logan Fontenelle Public Housing Projects, which were federally-funded and government-built near the corner of N. 24th and Cuming Streets, reflected a modern design aesthetic too.

Style 5: Garden Beautiful

From 1909 to 1931, a LOT of garden style apartments were built in North Omaha. According to the Nebraska State Historical Society, seven percent of all the apartments constructed in Omaha were this design. Buildings were built to let air move through and sunlight into each of the homes. They all had plenty of green space surrounding the buildings, which were laid out like a cross, “L” and “U” shapes. They also had a large front lawn, and multiple towers with stairs in them that took residents right to their apartments.

There are very few of these left in Omaha today, and one of the most outstanding remaining examples is in North Omaha at 2514 N. 16th Street. Built in the Classical Revival style by architect Richard Everett in 1929, there are four units in this building, also called a “fourplex” as part of a number of upscale apartments in the area. One of the most exquisite large-scale versions of this style is in North Omaha at 2536 North 16th Street. Called Bretnor Court and Rosewell, these apartments were designed in 1924 in strict accordance with the Garden City Movement.

Style 6: Mixing It Up

During and after World War II, many apartments were built in North Omaha in several different styles. Architects were building quickly, but often with innovations unseen before. Several examples of these emergent designs come from public housing projects scattered across North Omaha. They include the Alamo Plaza, built in 1948 at 116-124 N. 36th Street, and the Spencer Apartments at 1920 N. 30th Street

Style 7: High Rise

Evans Tower, 3600 N. 24th St, Omaha, NE 68110 — This is the Evans Tower at 3600 N. 24th Street in North Omaha, Nebraska

In the 1950 and 1960s, the federal government took it upon themselves to working with the Omaha Housing Authority to build high rises throughout North Omaha. They were the only high rise apartments in the entire community. They built several towers at the Hilltop / Pleasant View Public Housing Projects at N. 30th and Lake Streets. The others were senior retirement apartments, including the Evans Tower at 24th and Pratt; the Benson Tower at 5900 NW Radial Highway, and the Florence Tower. The Florence Tower was dedicated in 1970.

High Development Ends

The Conamore Apartments were located at North 27th and California Streets. Johnny Carson lived there in 1951. Built around 1922, they were demolished to make room for the North Freeway in the late 1960s.

All is not well with the apartments in North Omaha. In the 1950s, the City of Omaha starting attacking apartments with evictions and bulldozers throughout North Omaha. Of the dozens of Garden City Movement style buildings throughout the community, there were two units left standing in the community. With the onset of white flight that decade, remaining renters were greeted with declining conditions in their apartments as middle class white people fled from the area.

Between 1960 and 1980, more than 2,000 apartment units were demolished across North Omaha. Some of them were taken out for other developments, including St. Joseph’s Hospital and the North Freeway. Others were simply demolished and never replaced. The Malburn Apartments; Crutchfield Rowhouse; The California, and; the Conamore Apartments were all historically valuable apartments demolished mercilessly. Another was the Spaulding Apartments at 3824 North 24th. As the original Salvation Army Women’s Hospital built in the 1890s, this was a high quality, highly functional apartment building that was eventually torn down by the City of Omaha in the late 1970s because City leaders didn’t want large groups of African Americans living together along North 24th. Similar fates met the University Apartments at North 24th and Evans in the same decade, and the Logan Fontenelle Public Housing Projects in the 1990s.

The California Apartments at North 17th and California Streets were designed by Fisher & Lawrie, two of the most prolific architects in Omaha’s history. Built around 1908, they were demolished in the 1960s. Today, there is a parking lot where they were located.

Left in their wake were empty lots and broken neighborhoods. It turns out that those large scale multiple family dwellings were some of the threads that held the integrity and well-being of much of the community. When people moved out from those apartments, they took their families, their shopping, their traditions and their civic engagement with them.

Churches, stores, transportation and everything was affected adversely, and nothing has ever been the same. In a bid to win back those apartment dwellers, the city and state and federal government tore down 2,000 buildings from Cuming through Himebaugh Avenue, from North 26th to North 28th. The ill-informed North Freeway was responsible for the destruction of some of the most beautiful buildings in Omaha history.

The Future

Highlander development graphic, North Omaha, Nebraska — This is a 2013 graphic for Highlander, the ambitious revitalization plan of 75North, a redevelopment organization focused on the sites of Hilltop and Pleasantview projects.

No major apartment developments have happened in North Omaha since the 1970s. Some modified developments of different sizes have happened, including large scale ones, but nothing of the very large size.

Several apartment buildings in North Omaha have been recognized as official city landmarks or placed on the National Register of Historic Places. They include the Allas Apartments, Melrose Apartments, The Margaret, Memmen Apartments, Apartments at 2514 N. 16th Street, Broomfield Rowhouse, and the Sherman Apartments. While recent development schemes throughout Omaha have shown these statuses offer limited protection from voracious developers, historic rehabilitators and preservations are discovering the valuable emotion connection renters and others make to these historically invaluable properties after they’re saved.

Today, high development has apparently ended in North Omaha. Only the future will show whether or not it will always stay that way.

Segregated Apartments in Omaha

Joslyn Hall, Omaha University, North 24th and Evans Streets. — This is Omaha University’s Joslyn Hall, opened in 1917 near North 24th and Evans Streets. Part of the original Omaha University campus, it was renamed the “University Apartments” when the University moved in 1937. It was demolished in 1964).

With Omaha’s deep Jim Crow heritage, it should be no surprise that apartments throughout the city have always been racially segregated, and remain so today. Apartments throughout the Near North Side neighborhood were almost exclusively listed for African Americans by the 1950s. Apartments north of that in Kountze Place and Saratoga, (including the University Apartments shown above), welcomed Black renters with their ads implying they were either integrated or exclusively for Black residents. While this wasn’t de jure segregation, it was de facto, meaning that it was widely understood that Blacks couldn’t live in apartments that weren’t explicitly advertised for African American renters.

University Apartments, 3620 N. 24th St., North Omaha, Nebraska — This 1956 ad for the University Apartments at 3620 N. 24th St. loudly promote “Colored People Welcome” in another example of Omaha’s segregation practices.

Today, economic segregation keeps African Americans from living in many exclusively white apartments throughout Omaha. The African American population of the city continues to be isolated north of Dodge and east of 72nd Street, and while there are Black people living in other regions of the city, a disproportionate number of Black apartment renters continue to be segregated from white renters citywide.

North Omaha Historic Apartment Tour

Site of the Wright Block Apartments, at 318 North 16th Street
Strehlow Terrace, 2024 & 2107 N. 16th Street (National Register of Historic Places)
The Margaret, 2103 N. 16th Street (National Register of Historic Places)
Site of La Grata Court, 2116 N. 16th Street
Sherman Apartments, 2501 N. 16th Street (National Register of Historic Places; official Omaha Landmark)
Apartments, 2514 N. 16th Street
Bretnor Court, 2536 N. 16th Street
Rosewell Court, 2536 N. 16th Street
Frederick Hospital Apartments, 1425 N. 17th Street
Allas Apartments, 1609 Binney Street (National Register of Historic Places; official Omaha Landmark)
Nicholas Street Historic District, bounded by N. 11th St, Izard St, N. 14th Street
Omaha Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant (Tip Top Apartments), 1514-24 Cuming Street (National Register of Historic Places)
Idalia Apartments, 115 N. 33rd Street
Esther Apartments, 131 N. 33rd Street
Harriet Court, 137 N. 33rd Street
Melrose Apartments, 602 N. 33rd Street (National Register of Historic Places; official Omaha Landmark)
Alamo Plaza, 116-124 N. 36th Street
Radcliff Apartments, 105 N. 38th
Browne Apartments, 122 N. 40th Street
Carberry Apartments, 503 N. 40th Street
Fairview Apartments, 706 N. 50th Street
Nottingham Apartments, 3304 Burt Street
1890 Rowhouses, 1001 North 29th Street

You Might Like…

Elsewhere Online

Demolition of the Burt Tower in 2003
Garden Beautiful Movement article on Wikipedia
Apartments, Flats and Tenements in Omaha 1880-1962 Multiple Property Document, City of Omaha Landmark Heritage Preservation Commission
Nicholas Street Historic District, City of Omaha Landmark Heritage Preservation Commission

Bonus Pics!

*This is 3701 N 24th, built in 1915 at the corner of 24th and Pratt Streets. It features commercial space on the bottom and St. Louis style flats above.*

The Memmen Apartments were built in 1889 on Florence Boulevard in North Omaha, Nebraska. — *The Memmen Apartments were built in 1889 at 2214, 2216, 2218 and 2220 Florence Boulevard in North Omaha, Nebraska.*

*This commercial space and St. Louis Style Flats were built at 3713 N. 24th Street in 1925. It was home to the* University Lunch *from 1923-1938* *and the* Live Wire Cafe *from* *approximately 1966 to 1986.*

*These are the La Grata Court apartments that were at 2116 Sherman Avenue in North Omaha. Built in the 1920s, they were demolished in the 1990s.*

The Malburn Apartments were at 2202 Burdette in North Omaha. — The Malburn Apartments were built at 2202 Burdette Street in North Omaha in the 1890s, and demolished in 1970.

A History of Omaha's N. 16th Street aka Sherman Avenue — The Margaret was built by Robert Strehlow in 1916, and renovated in 2016.

Ivy Apartments 2407 North 16th Street North Omaha Nebraska — The Ivy Apartments were at 2407 North 16th Street from 1910 until they were demolished in 1986.

3709-11 N. 24th St., North Omaha, Nebraska — Apartments designed by Joseph P. Guth in 1924 at 3709-11 N. 24th St.

This 1960s era pic is two blocks north of Dodge Street at Davenport Street. The big building was the Wright Block Apartments at 318 North 16th Street. Also visible is Brown's Merchandise Bazaar, an empty pawn shop, Paul's Barbershop, Smogye's Groceries, and Webster's Bar on the corner. There's Richman Gordman billboard to the right, across the street from the bar. — This 1960s era pic is two blocks north of Dodge Street at Davenport Street. Along with the Wright Block Apartments at 318 North 16th Street, also visible is Brown’s Merchandise Bazaar, an empty pawn shop, Paul’s Barbershop, Smogye’s Groceries, and Webster’s Bar on the corner. There’s Richman Gordman billboard to the right, across the street from the bar.

Marianna Apartments, 2311-15 North 16th Street, North Omaha, Nebraska — Marianna Apartments at 2311-15 North 16th Street were at 16th and Victor from 1907 to 1975.

Frederick Hospital, North Omaha, Nebraska — The Frederick Hospital and Apartments, circa 1910. They were located at 1425 N. 17th Street in the Near North Side Neighborhood. Built in 1887, they were demolished in 1966.

California Apartments North Omaha Nebraska by Richard Thies — This is a pic of the backside of the California Apartments at North 17th and California Streets by Richard Thies, circa 1980. See the architectural schematics above for what the front looked like.

Malburn Apartments, N. 21st and Burdette St., North Omaha, Nebraska — This is a 1955 ad for the Malburn Apartments, which stood at N. 21st and Burdette St. from approximately 1930 to 1971, when they were demolished by the City of Omaha.

2 Comments

Robert G. Perrigo Sr. says:

August 10 at 4:12 am

I lived at 1425 N. 17th around 1960, Does anyone have more pictures of this area ? I used to lay in bed at night and watch ” MOTHERS BEST FLOUR / THE BEST FLOUR ” flash to put me asleep .

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1. Mary A Troia says:
  
  January 24 at 7:06 pm
  
  How well i remember the sign. My mother worked at the mill. Troia grocery was on 17th & Clark.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person