A History of Campion House in North Omaha

On the farthest south stretch of Florence Boulevard stood a proud building that was nearly 140 years old before it was demolished. Tucked away within the rapidly expanding Creighton University campus, this building was homes, flats, a boarding house, a dormitory, a priests’ hall, and offices. This is a history of Campion House in North Omaha.

The Campion House was located at 518 Florence Boulevard, also called North 19th Street.

Built in 1890, this was the kind of homes lived in by German, English and Scandinavian immigrants throughout the years, as well as Easterners migrating west. My research shows at least one of the flats might have been run as a boarding house, and that surrounding historical places at North 19th and California Streets are in line with the neighborhood’s diverse development patterns, including the St. Barnabas Catholic Church and Fleischmann Yeast Company, which shared the same corner.

Campion House, 518 Florence Boulevard, North Omaha, Nebraska — This is a then-and-now comparison of the Campion House at 518 Florence Boulevard. On the left is an 1890 Sanborn Fire Insurance map drawing of the building, and on the right is a 2017 Google Earth image of the building. This clearly shows they’re the same building.

In the 1970s, the building was renovated to serve as a home for Jesuit priests studying a liberal arts learning program at Creighton.

It was renovated again in 2005, and has served as offices for many programs since then. I speculate that in 2020, this building predated all other construction on the campus except Creighton Hall, and may have been developed concurrent with the Creighton Observatory.

The building appeared to be in good physical condition when it was demolished in 2022. It was not included in a proposed Creighton University Historic District, and was not been listed on the National Register of Historic Places or designated as an official Omaha Landmark by the City of Omaha Landmark Heritage Preservation Commission.

Creighton University demolished the Campion House in June 2022 and there are no signs of it today.