Built in 1952, the Hilltop Homes were located on the southwest corner of North 30th and Lake Streets. Part of the same construction spree as the Spencer Homes and the Pleasantview Homes, they were demolished in 1995. Today, Salem Baptist Church and Walgreen’s are located on the 14-acre site. This is a history of the Hilltop Projects in North Omaha.
Before the Projects
Before Hilltop was there, the southwest corner of 30th and Lake Streets was originally home to the Itner Brothers brickyard, a company that made the bricks that built early Omaha. John Itner was one of the original owners of the land after the area was opened for settlement in 1854. The Itner Brothers brickyard ran from 1880 to 1909, and after being bought by the J. F. Smith Brick Company, the corner remained a production center until 1918. The 175-foot-tall chimney for the brickyard stood on the corner from 1880 to 1931. Estimated to weigh 600 tons, debris fell 50 feet in every direction when it fell to the southwest. Most of the broken bricks were buried on the site when it fell.
A Construction Spree
According to several books and papers, the Hilltop Projects were strategically positioned to maintain the adherence of Omaha’s African American population to the redlining that first segregated the city in 1919.
Built as one of three public housing projects on the edges of the Near North Side, Hilltop housed at least 200 families at any given point during most of the 40+ years it existed. There were 225 units in 46 two-story buildings there. It bordered the Pleasantview Projects to the south, as well as Omaha’s most important historical cemetery called Prospect Hill.
Problems in the Projects
Offices for Hilltop were at 3012 Grant Street. In 1969, a new “multi-service center” was dedicated at the Hilltop Homes with Fannie Lou Hammer (1917-1977) as the keynote speaker. Ms. Hammer was a leader in the Freedom Democratic Party, a Black political movement from Mississippi, and today is recognized as an important figure in the latter years of the Civil Rights movement.
Throughout the years, Hilltop was frequently beleaguered by the media and politicians for the problems it faced. Residents were often blamed for these problems, and despite the complex being gone for more than 20 years now, its still blamed. For instance, a 2017 article in Omaha magazine said,
“Before Hilltop Home’s razing in 1995—which had the unfortunate consequence of displacing many lower-income minority residents—the plague of drugs, murders, and gang activity had turned the area’s housing projects into a localized war zone.”
—From “A New Day Arisen” by J.D. Avant written for Omaha magazine and published June 7, 2017.
In a 1982 survey of participants by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, nearly 82% of residents said that had no familiarity of the staff serving them at Hilltop.
Jesse Jackson, a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, came to Hilltop to campaign. According to one report, he “stood on a dumpster in Omaha’s Hilltop housing project and declared: ‘The polls, the pundits, the press will not determine who will win… That’s your decision.’”
A New Vision
The Omaha Housing Authority began implementing so-called scattered-site housing in the 1960s. There were public housing units spread into individual houses and not clustered in apartments. Two decades later, OHA became committed to its exclusive usage. This meant the projects had to go.
In 1995, the Hilltop Projects were demolished, and later in the 2000s, Pleasantview was completely demolished. In 1999 Salem Baptist Church built a new church on the corner of North 30th and Lake Streets, taking up all of the site of the former Hilltop. They also were responsible for the development of a Walgreen’s and other commercial storefronts at the intersection.
Within the next decade, the rest of the surrounding was recreated as an “urban village” designed to build on surrounding institutions like the Charles Drew Health Center, the Urban League and the Miami Heights neighborhood. Plans called for mixed-income and mixed-type housing, neighborhood services, and an intergenerational community center, and the Highlander neighborhood was built as a result.
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MY ARTICLES ON THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN NORTH OMAHA
GENERAL: Architectural Gems | The Oldest House | The Oldest Places
PLACES: Mansions and Estates | Apartments | Churches | Public Housing | Houses | Commercial Buildings | Hotels | Victorian Houses
PEOPLE: ‘Cap’ Clarence Wigington | Everett S. Dodds | Jacob Maag | George F. Shepard | John F. Bloom
HISTORIC HOUSES: Mergen House | Hoyer House | North Omaha’s Sod House | James C. Mitchell House | Charles Storz House | George F. Shepard House | 2902 N. 25th St. | 6327 Florence Blvd. | 1618 Emmet St. | John E. Reagan House
PUBLIC HOUSING: Logan Fontenelle | Spencer Street | Hilltop | Pleasantview | Myott Park aka Wintergreen
NORMAL HOUSES: 3155 Meredith Ave. | 5815 Florence Blvd. | 2936 N. 24th St. | 6711 N. 31st Ave. | 3210 N. 21st St. | 4517 Browne St. | 5833 Florence Blvd. | 1922 Wirt St. | 3467 N. 42nd St. | 5504 Kansas Ave. | Lost Blue Windows House | House of Tomorrow | 2003 Pinkney Street
HISTORIC APARTMENTS: Historic Apartments | Ernie Chambers Court, aka Strehlow Terrace | The Sherman Apartments | Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects | Spencer Street Projects | Hilltop Projects | Pleasantview Projects | Memmen Apartments | The Sherman | The Climmie | University Apartments | Campion House
MANSIONS & ESTATES: Hillcrest Mansion | Burkenroad House aka Broadview Hotel aka Trimble Castle | McCreary Mansion | Parker Estate | J. J. Brown Mansion | Poppleton Estate | Rome Miller Mansion | Redick Mansion | Thomas Mansion | John E. Reagan House | Brandeis Country Home | Bailey Residence | Lantry – Thompson Mansion | McLain Mansion | Stroud Mansion | Anna Wilson’s Mansion | Zabriskie Mansion | The Governor’s Estate | Count Creighton House | John P. Bay House | Mercer Mansion | Hunt Mansion | Latenser Round House and the Bellweather Mansion
COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS: 4426 Florence Blvd. | 2410 Lake St. | 26th and Lake Streetcar Shop | 1324 N. 24th St. | 2936 N. 24th St. | 5901 N. 30th St. | 4402 Florence Blvd. | 4225 Florence Blvd. | 3702 N. 16th St. | House of Hope | Drive-In Restaurants
RELATED: Redlining | Neighborhoods | Streets | Streetcars | Churches | Schools
Elsewhere Online
- “History of Prospect Village” by the City of Omaha
- “A New Day Arisen” by J.D. Avant written for Omaha magazine on June 7, 2017.
BONUS!
Warning: The following video of the Hilltop Projects was filmed in 1995. It may contain language or music that some find offensive. Mute the volume.
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