Formally founded in 1854, the history of the Florence neighborhood in North Omaha includes businesses, schools, cityhood and a crazy story about being the state capital for a day. It also includes a lot of churches. The townsite was established on faith, with the Mormon Church keeping the Winter Quarters for their westward migration from 1846 to 1848.

This is a short history of churches in Florence. Its not complete, so please feel free to share any information, details, comments, pictures or suggestions below.

Winter Quarters Temple

a6d92-florence2bwinter2bquarters — The location of 3,000 cabins and living areas, Winter Quarters surely had a place of worship.

Address: Unknown, Winter Quarters, Indian Territory
Years: presumably 1846-1848

Given the Winter Quarters settlers were religious people, its reasonable to assume they established a place of worship in their town. I don’t know whether it actually existed, where it was, or whether it actually existed. If you know, please leave a comment below!

St. James Episcopal Church

Address: Unknown, Florence, Nebraska Territory
Years: 1857

In 1857, the Iowa diocese established St. James Episcopal Church in Florence. This early missionary’s salary was paid in part by Davenport businessman Ebenezer Cook, who was part of the group that established the Bank of Florence. Rev. Adams only stayed for a few months though, and the congregation ended with him.

Florence Methodist Church

Address: 31st Bluff Street, Florence, Nebraska Territory (today called 8424 North 31st Street, Omaha, Nebraska)
Years: 1856-1927

In 1857, Rev. Isaac F. Collins established the Florence Methodist Church after serving as a circuit rider in the surrounding area for a several months. In August 1857, a church was built on lot number one on Bluff Street in downtown Florence. Acting as the first school in Florence, 56 students attended there the first year. Apparently though, with the economic Panic of 1857 the Methodists could not maintain their building and were forced to give it to creditors that same year. However, they overcame their indebtedness and continued to meet. The congregation lasted until 1927, when it was merged into the Hirst Memorial congregation, which became Ames Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church when their new building opened in 1928.

Florence Baptist Church

Address: Unknown, Florence, Nebraska Territory
Years: 1856

Referred to as the “Pioneer Preacher,” Rev. George W. Barnes picked Florence over Omaha to start the first Baptist church in the area. Even though it looked like a sure shot in 1856 when it was founded, Florence didn’t flourish as much as Omaha and the church folded within a few years.

Florence Christian Church

Address: 8929 North 29th Street, Florence, Nebraska
Years: 1896-1961 (still operating elsewhere)

Located at 8929 North 29th Street, the Florence Christian Church was also called the First Christian Church. The Florence Christian Church moved into a new building at 7300 Northridge Drive in 1961, and continues operating today.

Florence Presbyterian Church

Address: 31st Bluff Street, Florence, Nebraska Territory (today called 8314 North 31st Street, Omaha, Nebraska)
Years: 1856-present

First Presbyterian Church of Florence, North Omaha, Nebraska — This was the First Presbyterian Church of Florence, once located at North 31st and State Street.

Reverend Eben Blachly was the first Presbyterian missionary in Florence, arriving when the town was founded. Established in 1856, there were 50 members when it started with services and classes in local homes. With an early church built at 31st Bluff Street opposite of the Florence Methodist Church, the modern Florence Presbyterian Church is still located at the same location, 8314 North 31st Street. After having three ministers and moving around members’ houses over and over in its first three years, the church stabilized and grew. Hard times came and went, and for a long time the church worshipped in the second floor of the Florence City Hall. In 1897, they dedicated their first church, and they built their current church at 8314 North 31st Street in 1950.

St. Philip Neri Catholic Church

Address: 8202 North 30th Street, Florence, Nebraska
Years: 1904-present

Located at 8200 North 30th Street, St. Philip Neri has a long history in the Florence neighborhood of North Omaha. Established at N. 31st and Grebe in 1904, the parish opened a school in 1922. The original church was used as classrooms starting in 1953, when a new church was built at North 30th and Grebe Streets. The original church served as classrooms for the school until 1958, when both buildings were demolished and replaced. St. Philip Neri parish and school continue operating today.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church

Address: 8019 North 31st Street, Florence, Nebraska
Years: 1881 to 1964

Saints of Salvation Ministries, 8019 N. 31st Street, Florence, Nebraska 68112 — Built as St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, today this church is home to the Saints of Salvation Ministries. Its located at 8019 North 31st Street in Florence

In September 1888, the Reverend William Pearson began Episcopal church services in a school house in Florence. In 1891, St. Mark’s was built with gifts from local Bishop Worthington and a friend on land given by the Florence Land Company for $2,000. By 1893 though, the church was reduced to only holding occasional services because of a lack of interest.

The congregation bought a new site near North 60th and Girard Streets in 1964, but never rebuilt there. Instead, they closed in the 1980s. Today, the original church building at 8019 North 31st Street has become home to the Saints of Salvation Ministries.

Ebenezer Lutheran Church

Address: 4th and Washington, Florence, Nebraska
Years: 1903 to 1915

Swedish immigrants started Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Florence in 1903. 12 people organized Florence’s Ebenezer Church with Rev. C.E. Elving. Located at 4th and Washington Streets, the church building was moved from Omaha and rebuilt on the site. After thriving for the next decade, the community was struck by an economic downtown and the church closed in 1915, after just 12 years of operation, and the congregation merged with Trinity Lutheran Church.

St. John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church

Address: 11120 Calhoun Road
Years: 1900 to present

Pastor Otto Erbe founded St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Ponca Hills in 1900. In 1902, the church was built and operated as a German language congregation until 1918. The church was formally incorporated in 1925. After an expansion in 1934, the church was rededicated. Today the church continues in the Missouri Synod.

Other Religious People and Institutions in Florence

Notre Dame Academy, 3501 State Street, Florence, North Omaha, Nebraska 68112 — A 1920s postcard of the Notre Dame Academy at 3501 State Street in Florence.

Reverend Reuben Gaylord, widely recognized as the father of Congregationalism in Nebraska, preached in Florence in the late 1850s. However, there’s no sign that a Congregational church was ever founded in the community. The Ponca Presbyterian Church opened in the early 1900s, and was located in the Ponca Hills. Rev. George S. Sloan was the minister there for several decades, but I don’t have information on when it closed.

Some people claim Mt. Olive Lutheran Church at 7301 North 28th Street is in Florence, but in reality it is located in the Florence Field neighborhood, and I include its history there.

One of the most important 20th century religious institutions in Florence was the Notre Dame Convent and Academy at 3501 State Street. Built in the 1920s, its nuns were Czechs who were intended to serve Omaha’s large Czech community. After identifying their need to serve Omaha, the Sisters of Notre Dame bought Father Flanagan’s Seven Oaks Farm, and hired architects to design a large, E-shaped building to serve as a high school. The Notre Dame Academy closed in the 1970s, and today the building serves as housing for the elderly.

The presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Florence can’t be stated highly enough. After establishing their Winter Quarters on the west bank of the Missouri River in 1846, they laid out the street grid that became Florence, and constructed many of the original buildings that were sold a decade later to speculators. The Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, home to the hundreds of people who died in the winter of 1846, is located today at 3301 State Street. Used until 1848, LDS Church records indicate 359 pioneers are buried there. In a different location, Omaha’s Potter’s Field Cemetery was started in at least the 1870s, although there’s speculation that the first burials there happened when it was next to Cutler’s Park. Today, its located at 7909 Mormon Bridge Road next to the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

The History Meets the Present

By 1916, Florence claimed to have seven churches, and the next year the city was annexed into Omaha. Since then, churches have come and gone, merged and closed, and in a few cases they’ve survived and flourished. Today, their past fills in more of the important history of North Omaha.

Directory of Historic Florence Churches

Briggs United Brethren Church, North 58th and McKinley
Florence Christian Church, 8929 North 29th Street (1896-present)
Florence Church of Christ
Florence Methodist Church, 8424 North 31st Street (1857)
Florence First Presbyterian Church, 8314 North 31st Street (1857-present)
St. John’s German Lutheran Church, 11120 Calhoun Road (1900-present)
Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, 7301 North 28th Street (1923-present)
St. Marks Episcopal Church, 8019 North 31st Street (1881-1964)
St. James Episcopal Church, location unknown (1857)
St. Phillip Neri Catholic Church, 8202 North 31st Street (1905-present)
Winter Quarters Mormon Temple, location unknown (1846-1848)

You Might Like…

Elsewhere Online

“Churches,” Florence Futures Foundation
“The founding of Florence, Nebraska, 1854-1860” by Marian G. Miles for University of Nebraska at Omaha (1970)
“Redeeming The Time: Protestant Missionaries and the Social and Cultural Development of Territorial Nebraska” by Robert J. Voss for the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2006)
“History,” Notre Dame Sisters of Omaha

BONUS PICS

St. Philip Neri Catholic Church at 8250 N. 31st Street, Florence, North Omaha, Nebraska — The 1922 plans for St. Philip Neri Catholic Church at 8250 N. 31st Street were built, and the school stood until 1959.

1846 Winter Quarters map — This is the 1846 map of Winter Quarters made by its settlers. There is no place of worship marked on the map.

1904 St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 8202 N. 31st St, Florence, North Omaha, Nebraska — Built at 8202 N. 31st Street in 1904, the original St. Philip Neri Church burnt in 1959. The 1922 school is to the right.

7 Comments

Steve Cottle says:

October 23 at 12:08 pm

Excellent reading! Thank-you!

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1. Adam F. C. Fletcher says:
  
  October 23 at 1:16 pm
  
  Thanks Steve, glad you like it!
  
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Sartenada says:

October 24 at 2:41 pm

Some Bell towers are different with those we have in Finland.

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Yvonne Adams Bechtold says:

October 25 at 8:34 pm

There is a historic marker on near the corner of 48th and McKinley still standing more than 25 years ago that told of a Mormon town there that had paved streets. The last time I was by there someone had trimmed the weeds away from it and folks had been pulling over to read it so no weeds nor grass right in front of it at that time.

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Peter Massey says:

November 3 at 7:45 pm

Thanks for this page! A note on St. Marks Church; a congregation was active at the Florence location up until 1964. This page implies the church relocated to Benson in the 1890s. My family attended services at the Florence Church from at least the late 1940’s (maybe earlier) until the 1964 move to Girard St. in NW Omaha. There, we assumed the population was expanding and we could grow the congregation from newcomers to that area. The congregation bought a significant tract of land to first build a small church and rectory, with room to build a much larger church later. But growth in NW Omaha stopped suddenly, and the church struggled. We never built the larger church, and the dwindling North Omaha attendees couldn’t keep it afloat. The diocese closed the church, but I’m not sure when – probably in the 1980s.

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1. Adam says:
  
  November 4 at 4:28 pm
  
  Thanks for your note Peter–you hint at a mystery that I know little about, although with my explorations around the Ames Plaza development, the new Immanuel Hospital and other area features I have been wondering about: The stagnate development from North 60th to North 72nd, from Ames north to the interstate. Now I must find out why! What will the public record say… And what a brutal way for St. Marks to find out it was never going to happen…Thanks again for your note.
  
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TM Wells says:

May 18 at 12:51 pm

I presume you have visited the Winter Quarters Trail Center – https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/historic-sites/nebraska/mormon-trail-center-at-historic-winter-quarters?lang=eng . They may be able to answer your questions. There is also collections of Diaries and Rememberances that they can guide you to for further research.

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