A History of 1618 Emmet Street

There are gorgeous Victorian homes tucked away throughout North Omaha. It has become increasingly difficult to find great examples of them still standing, but a few stand out, including several in the Kountze Place neighborhood. This is a history of one of them, the beautiful home at 1618 Emmet Street.

Welcome to the Burdick House

In 1889, the street where the house was built was graded for the first time. It was part of Herman Kountze’s vision for developing his prime Kountze Place properties. Built in 1890, the house at 1618 Emmet was designed and built by architect Isaac E. Burdick (1848-1906). Owned by Burdick, it was one of four structures in Omaha he designed, and the only one still standing. There were many architect-designed homes in the neighborhood, and Burdick’s contribution was a fine addition.

Burdick designed the home with all the main elements of the Queen Anne style including a steep roof with large dormers, an asymmetrical front façade, an expansive porch, and a round front corner tower with a conical roof. There is also a distinctive half-circle window on the front and a unique octagonal dormer. With more than 2,500 square feet of room on the two main floors, there is a 1,200 square foot basement and an unfinished half floor at the top. Today as when it was built, it is a single family home with four bedrooms, a bath and a half and nine total rooms in the house.

The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition happened just north of the home in 1898, and the Expo grounds were used in 1899, too. The sidewalk in front of the house was paved in 1899, and after sewers were installed the next year the street was paved between North 16th Street and North 24th Street in 1901.

The Troxell Family

Served by a cook and a maid, the home in Kountze Place was just right for the family of Charleton Curn “Charles” Troxell (1859-1918). He was married to Camelia Troxell (1859-1925), and his children were William Troxell (1880-1954), Ona Bowman (1884-1966) and Alice McCoun (1888-1964). Mr. Troxell was a manager for a plow manufacturer, the Sattley Manufacturing Company. In addition to plows, they also sold cultivators, listers, planters, wagons, buggies and more. Sattley was in business in a time of massive farm sales when the West was settled by homesteaders trying to become farmers. The Illinois-based company had a five-story building near the 10th Street viaduct, and in an ad from 1900 bragged “every car on or to the big union and Burlington stations passes its door.” Founded with $25,000 in 1890, within a decade the company was worth $500,000 and was looking to grow. “…under the able management of the branch here, Mr. C.C. Troxell has made one constant advance.” The company’s building still stands at 1001 Jones Street, is known now as the Ford Storage Building and is included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Annually, the newspaper announced that the family returned from spending their summer at a “summer retreat in the West.” One of the places they went for the summer was a ranch near Bancroft, Nebraska. Alice, the Troxell’s youngest child, became a widely known artist whose realistic works are sought after today.

The family was active throughout the community. Active members of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Troxell was on the original fundraising committee for Methodist Hospital. He was also a member of the Omaha Commercial Club. Around the early 1910s, the family became active at the Happy Hollow Country Club. In 1911, Troxell retired. Then working for the Nebraska Moline Plow Company, he wintered in California immediately afterward. He died at home in 1918 at age 58.

In the 1950s, this home was likely put under a racially restrictive covenant intended to keep the Kountze Place neighborhood segregated for white people only. By the time the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1964, waves of white flight had started sweeping the neighborhood. Many large homes like this were carved into apartment houses, and some were left derelict. The City of Omaha included many homes in the neighborhood around 1618 Emmet on their demolition hit list and many historic properties have been destroyed.

Modern Times

In 2009, the owners restored the Burdick House after buying the boarded up century-plus old boarded up house. They restored the exterior of the house, including the siding, windows and roof, as well as the interior woodwork, plaster, fine interior millwork and more. After the interior stairs were stolen, they found it and had it reinstalled, and they later rebuilt the wraparound porch.

As of 2023, the house is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has not been designated as an official Omaha Landmark. It was included on a Restoration Exchange Omaha tour in 2017, but is not widely recognized as the historic property it is.

Hopefully that will change in the future.

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Elsewhere Online

“Alice Louise Troxell McCoun” Museum of Nebraska Art official website