North Omaha was once a suburban dreamland, and the Kountze Place neighborhood was one of its suburban jewels. Palatial homes and grand manses were built throughout Kountze Place. In time, most were neglected, forgotten, and many have been bulldozed. However, there have been some preserved and a few saved. This is a story about a fine house that is coming back from the brink located at 2003 Pinkney Street.

A Quiet Suburban Home

Built in 1909, the house on the southwest corner of Florence Boulevard and Pinkney Street was a regular middle class house for white families from the time it was built in 1909 through the 1970s. The neighborhood around it, called Kountze Place, was a bastion of white supremacy for more almost a century before the Fair Housing Act of 1964. Of course, this terrorism was intended to keep Black people segregated from white people, with the nefarious techniques of redlining combined with explicit racism to enforce substandard housing, civic benign neglect and economic decimation in the larger Near North Side community. This all began at the outset of the neighborhood’s inception in the 1880s, reached its apex during the Trans-Mississippi Expo held here in 1898, and continued rearing its ugly head for the next 70 years afterward.

Lucy Ann Tea Room

In the first two decades of the house’s existence, it was a normal suburban house with its most important comings-and-goings, including weddings, funerals, graduations and other events celebrated in the newspapers. With the outset of the Great Depression, in 1931 the house took another form by becoming a restaurant.

Referred to as the Lucy Ann Tea Room, it was like a light cafe and offered finer foods. Operated by Mr. and Mrs. H.B. Crouch offered lunches on Sunday from 12:30 to 5pm, lunches during weekdays from noon to 2pm, and dinners weekly from 5:30 to 7:30pm. They advertised “delicious home made foods prepared by Edyth Herrick, a registered dietician.

“It’s a rare delight when one can feast on such delicious food as fried chicken cooked to a delicate brown, along with a well balanced menu which ends with a juicy, toothsome apple or peach pie or a frozen dessert, for this little price.”

—Omaha World-Herald, August 16, 1931

Every meal cost .50¢ “It’s a rare delight when one can feast on such delicious food as fried chicken cooked to a delicate brown, along with a well balanced menu which ends with a juicy, toothsome apple or peach pie or a frozen dessert, for this little price,” raved a review in the Omaha World-Herald from August 16. The Lucy Ann Tea Room didn’t go on forever though, and after a while the ads stopped and it was mentioned no more in the media.

Activism at the Payne House

In 1939 the house was advertised for sale with 6 rooms, including a large living room with a fireplace, a sleeping porch and a large featured bedroom. That year it was $3,500. Sitting on the edge of Kountze Park, it was a logical place for concerned residents to gather and rally for improvements to the facilities there.

In 1941, it was referred to as the Payne House in the media when neighbors gathered there to protest conditions at Kountze Park. Charles J. Payne was the organizer of the activism campaign who invited city officials to come to the house. Demanding improvements to the lagoon, the group called for the installation of a sunken garden, a playground “with the banning of softball and baseball diamonds,” and the re-establishment of tennis courts and “in general beautify entire park’s landscaping.” They called city commissioners to the meeting, and complained about “vandalism and general destruction and disturbances around the neighborhood.” The city parks department told the group they were doing most of the improvements immediately. Within a month of the first meeting, the newspaper reported that “Holding that the present condition of Kountze Park is ‘deplorable,’ residents in the neighborhood plan a protest meeting on the subject tonight.” The Kountze Place group met at the Payne House again and the newspaper said, “The lagoon, once a crystal gem surrounded by the alabaster walls of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, today is but a mudhole. The residents there say so, and park commissioner Towl agrees.” Noting that the expo was just 42 years earlier and had been the site of so much beauty, the paper said, “The whole situation hasn’t helped residential values.”

In 1948, the Paynes advertised the house for sale saying they were “moving to the coast.”

Integrating a Home

In the early 1960s, the Kountze Place neighborhood’s hard redline fell. Redlining had kept African Americans from moving into the neighborhood for more than 50 years prior. In 1964, the death of Mother Alice B. Cheney (1881-1964) at 2003 Pinkney was noted by the Omaha Star. Her leadership at the Robinson Memorial Church of God in Christ was featured in the paper, and her loss from the neighborhood was palpable within the community.

In the next decade, there were dozens of parades and large scale events that gathered outside the house at Kountze Park, which was called Malcolm X Park by the end of the 1960s.

In 1970, Victor Wilburn and his wife were interviewed by the Omaha World-Herald about their access to new senior housing in the city. Wilburn, who was Mother Cheney’s brother, and his wife spoke to the paper. Mrs. Wilburn said “Our family has grown up and we want to live in smaller quarters.” She said the two-story, nine-room home was too large for them to maintain after their three children finished college degrees and moved out.

Located kitty-corner from Kellogg’s Garden Market, in the next era the home was in a prime neighborhood location for its convenience and amenities. From 1970 through 2023, the address was silent in the media. In 2007, the house was included as a sample location for the EPA Superfund site including most of North Omaha. They found concentrations of lead in the soil and sewage systems. In 2008, the Union Pacific monitored the house for its lead levels, too, this time sampling paint, water, sewage, and the lawns. In 2020, the house’s owner got a grant from the City of Omaha to trim trees on their property.

However, several years ago it became run down and was falling apart as recently as 2022. In May 2023, it was sold for just $11,250 and in June a $20,000 building permit was issued for its rehabilitation.

Today, in September 2023, the house’s rehabilitation continues. Its uncertain whether its a renovation or a restoration, but either way it is good to see a fine home in the Kountze Place neighborhood be saved rather than demolished, as so many have. It’s advertised with three bedrooms and one bathroom across 1,750 square feet.

Maybe in the future it will be acknowledged for its historical role in building, maintaining, restoring and preserving the neighborhood and it’s history. Only time will time.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT NORMAL HOUSES
3155 Meredith Ave. | 5815 Florence Blvd. | 6711 N. 31st Ave. | 3210 N. 21st St. | 4517 Browne St. | 5833 Florence Blvd. | 1922 Wirt St.
| 3467 N. 42nd St. | 5504 Kansas Ave. | Blue Windows House | 2003 Pinkney St. | Hoyer House | O.W. House

MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF KOUNTZE PLACE
General: Kountze Place | Kountze Park | North 16th Street | North 24th Street | Florence Boulevard | Wirt Street | Emmet Street | Binney Street | 16th and Locust Historic District
Houses: Charles Storz House | Anna Wilson’s Mansion | McCreary Mansion | McLain Mansion | Redick Mansion | John E. Reagan House | George F. Shepard House | Burdick House | 3210 North 21st Street | 1922 Wirt Street | University Apartments
Churches: First UPC/Faith Temple COGIC | St. Paul Lutheran | Hartford Memorial UBC/Rising Star Baptist | Immanuel Baptist | Calvin Memorial Presbyterian | Trinity Methodist Episcopal | Mount Vernon Missionary Baptist | Greater St. Paul COGIC | Plymouth Congregational/Primm Chapel AME/Second Baptist | Paradise Baptist
Education: Omaha University | Presbyterian Theological Seminary | Lothrop Elementary School | Horace Mann Junior High | Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Hospitals: Salvation Army Hospital | Swedish Hospital | Kountze Place Hospital
Events: Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition | Greater America Exposition | Riots
Businesses: Hash House | 3006 Building | Grand Theater | 2936 North 24th Street | Corby Theater
Other: Kountze Place Golf Club

Listen to the North Omaha History Podcast show #4 about the history of the Kountze Place neighborhood »

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

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