Early Omaha was a stingy place. For decades, homeless people, hungry children and forgotten seniors had been left at home to die alone, suffering in agony without attention from the social saftey net—because there wasn’t one. One of the earliest charities in the city was started on the present-day Creighton University campus. It moved a few times, changed and modified, and still operates today. This is a history of the House of Hope in North Omaha.
The Beginnings
The Douglas County Poor Farm was a terrible place. Opened to provide housing for people who wouldn’t have it otherwise, the conditions there were deplorable and seen only as a last resort. That’s why Rev. Charles W. Savidge (1850-1935) founded the House of Hope, initially for “the poor and infirm” an an alternative to the Poor Farm.
It was 1890 when Rev. Savidge first started mentioning plans for the House of Hope. He came to Omaha as a Methodist Episcopal minister, but after leaving the city for a year ministering in Grand Island, he returned to the city, left the denomination and established the nondenominational People’s Church in North Omaha. According to an 1891 article, he was inspired to start the House of Hope by a Bible verse, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
Focusing his charity work on low-income seniors, he decided to build a “House of Hope” to be a “refuge from temptation” for seniors. After he announced his plans publicly, the Omaha World-Herald published several letters of support from the community, including other ministers, architects and donors. Looking to build the facility next to the original People’s Church at 515 North 18th Street, Rev. Savidge sought to raise funds and build the new home. Unfortunately, his fundraising campaign failed and he ended up operating emergency housing inside the People’s Church.
From that truly humble start, the House of Hope became one of Omaha’s first and most important early charities. It was a model for religious and civic organizations for decades to come, and by the time it was mature the organization was firmly woven into the city’s cultural fabric.
Nicknamed “Omaha’s Marrying Minister,” when he died, the newspaper excitedly reported that Rev. Charles W. Savidge (1850-1935) had married 6,633 couples in 50 years of service to the city. Living at 2228 Maple Street, Rev. Savidge’s legacy also included establishing and operating the People’s Church for 45 years, establishing the House of Hope, staying married to his wife Anna Savidge (1859-1952) for 48 years, and conducting funerals for more than 5,000 people. Rev. Savidge was from Ohio and Minnesota, and graduated from the University of Minnesota before becoming a Methodist minister. He came to Omaha in 1882 and served at the Seward Street Methodist Episcopal Church and the Newman M.E. Church. He and his wife had four children, and the couple was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
In 1906, Rev. Savidge began another fundraising campaign. His church was too crowded with emergency housing residents, with twenty seniors and others lived in the building. He got in tight with the Omaha World-Herald and used it as a fundraising vehicle. In his first column there, Rev. Savidge said, “The Old People’s Home is full and these persons want to be near the church to attend the services. I have been in this church nearly fifteen years, and my character and labors are known… I have no desire to enter on this work except the finger of God plainly points the way, and I shall know by the results of this letter… Will you help?”
In another direct appeal printed in the Omaha World-Herald in June 1906, Rev. Savidge wrote, “House of Hope: A small amount of money has come in for the House of Hope and has been placed in the bank. I wish a thousand people would give me $5 each. I would then pay cash for the fine lot next to the church. I would turn the cottages already build, facing them to the south, refit them and thus be able at once to take care of some of the sick and poor. Grandma Carroll needs a home and care at once. Friends, speak up.”
“I am now sheltering in the church and feeding outside an old woman 83 years old and a young woman whom I married to a bright young man a year ago with her baby, now a month old. She has failed to make connections with her husband and does not know where he is and he does not know where she is.”
—Rev. C.W. Savidge as quoted by the Omaha World-Herald, August 14, 1906
In August 1906, he bought a property at 1713 California Street with a cottage of five or six rooms on a half-lot. It was connected to the church property. After the re-opening of the facility was announced, the pastor was quoted in the paper saying, “We have twenty old people who will need a home before a long while, and if I send them to the poor house the Lord will haunt me.”
The next March, Rev. Savidge announced the home had raised $1,418.45 since the previous August. The cottage was repaired and a matron was hired, and “daily needs are met as God helps us.” The cottage was full with a waiting list almost immediately after opening.
Buying the Dexter Thomas Mansion
The next year, in June 1908, Rev. Savidge bought the Dexter Thomas Mansion. Refered to as “the House of Hope Home for the Aged,” the 20-room house sat at 958 North 27th Avenue between Cuming and Izard Streets, and was built by a wealthy businessman in the 1870s. Referring to the mansion as “magnificent,” the newspaper said “The house is known as one of the best in the city… all the modern improvements.” Paying $8,500 for the home, the newspaper reported that the house was worth $20,000. “One of the features of the purchase rests in that the magnificent pool and billiard hall in the home will be changed into a prayer room – a place of worship. Mr. Savidge is settled on this point, since he has always bitterly opposed those two games…”
Incorporating as a nonprofit that month, the House of Hope was “organized for the purpose of providing for the moral, spiritual, intellectual and physical welfare of aged people of either sex who, as an effect of age, have become infirm and unable to properly provide and care for themselves. The purpose of the organization is to establish a home or homes for such people.” Notable members of the original board of directors included philanthropist Gould Dietz (1868-1948), investor George E. Barker (1835-1927), scion Dr. Nelson S. Mercer (1874-1963) and Rev. Savidge, among others.
“I very much desire to pay every dollar due on the House of Hope. Tell me to come to your house for some offering, whether it be large or small, and I will come. Don’t fail. You owe it to God.”
—Rev. Charles W. Savidge, Omaha World-Herald, November 26, 1908
In November 1908, Rev. Savidge printed another appeal in the newspaper, writing “I very much desire to pay every dollar due on the House of Hope. Tell me to come to your house for some offering, whether it be large or small, and I will come. Don’t fail. You owe it to God.”
Over the next year, Rev. Savidge sought donations, held a lawn social, called for volunteers and sought a milk cow to be donated to the House of Hope. Asking for 25 carpenters to voluntarily build a barn, the facility soon had its cow. The carpenters’ union and the bricklayers’ union built the entire structure free of charge. Seeking money for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas celebrations, there were 23 residents in the home by the end of the year. Late in December Rev. Savidge acquired a team of “fine black horses,” but the newspaper didn’t say what they were for.
For several years, the House of Hope simply operated like senior retirement centers do today: People moved in, people got sick, people recovered and oftentimes, people died. There were fundraisers and special events, everyday improvements and challenges, and the organization continued operating. In the middle of 1909 one of Rev. Savidge’s appeals in the newspaper said, “I have had no vacation for eighteen years. I often get tired. I am now planting garden to help these old people out on provisions. Won’t you help us cancel every dollar of debt on this noble home?”
In November 1910 the Douglas County tax collector threatened to foreclose on the house because taxes hadn’t been paid. Rev. Savidge protested to the tax board because the House of Hope was a nonprofit. Somehow that was resolved, because within the next two years the organization took possession of two more houses to serve its clientele. Then Rev. Savidge was ready to grow again.
Moving to Florence
In 1912, Rev. Savidge announced it was time for the House of Hope to move and grow again. In July of that year, wealthy Florence scion Frank Parker donated money to the association to fund the purchase of the new building, and guaranteed more money for the construction of the building. Early estimates placed the cost at $35,000. Proposing a 50-room facility designed in an “Old English” architecture style,
“I don’t know where I’m going to get the $40,000 necessary to put up this building and pay for the land, but I’m satisfied the Lord will see me through with it. The Lord is two-thirds of everything. I’m going ahead with the work, and when the time comes I’ll have the money to pay for it.”
—Rev. Charles W. Savidge, Omaha World-Herald, July 20, 1912
The House of Hope bought two sites on Main Street in the City of Florence that were 2.5 acres for construction in June 1913. Located on North 30th Street, the two sites were on Scott Street and Farnum Street, now referred to as King Street.
In early 1914, the organization reported having “thirty inmates [residents], two of whom are blind, six are invalids and three get about in wheelchairs.” In the subsequent years the House of Hope continued regular activities, appealing for donations and holding socials, treating guests as well as possible and staying connected to the larger community. Parishioners from Dietz Memorial Methodist Church made the news when they arranged rides for mostly shut-in residents to their church in south Omaha. There was an ice cream social held for residents at Miller Park, where they joined other shut-ins from other institutions and throughout the community. That year South Omaha public schools donated Thanksgiving dinners to the home, and students at Central High collected donations for the organization.
Popular local architect Harry Lawrie (1858-1935) designed the new building at a new estimate of $50,000. A fire at the old Thomas Mansion in 1915 made the needs of the organization more pressing, and the fundraising process was accelerated. Forty people were living in the House of Hope facilities then.
In March 1916, the pastor said “When we’ve got God with us we aren’t afraid of spooks” in a newspaper report about pouring the foundation for the new building. I don’t know what the “spooks” comment was about, but I do know that the newspaper reported that a cornerstone was being laid for the new building on April 9, 1916. That date was moved to April 30, 1916.
In August 1916 the organization planned to auction the Thomas Mansion in August to raise money for the new building.
In late October 1916 there was a weeklong open house at the new facility.
Thomas Stroud, a North Omaha industrialist, started a fundraising team for the House of Hope in November 1916. Together with several other philanthropists, they sought to raise $50,000 to pay of debt on the Florence building and to build the additions planned to it. It took more than a year, but they accomplished their task. Fundraising continued, and in 1917 a group of young people raised thousands of dollars for the organization by selling “tags” as a commitment to the House of Hope.
Controversy Strikes
The focus of the House of Hope seems to have wavered in the fall of 1916. In a September 1916 newspaper article, Rev. Savidge said the home would “be used for aged men who desire a home there and who can obtain it by meeting certain financial requirements that are essential to help pay the running expenses.” The headline to that article was, “Hope for veterans caught short in twilight years.” At the same time, the Old Folks Home in Kountze Place was serving low income seniors, and the Colored Old Folks Home served African Americans. The House of Hope was a white-only facility.
Rev. Savidge staged a public protest of accusations brought against him in public by the president. of the board of directors of the House of Hope in March 1917. The man said that the pastor shouldn’t be keeping the old Thomas Mansion, and in response to the pastor said to the newspaper that he was only keeping the old house because he kept serving the poor there, which the new facility did not explicitly do. “…[H]e is doing things at the House of Hope with which I cannot agree,” the pastor said.
As of April 1917 the old Thomas Mansion hadn’t been sold and the House of Hope still operated it as a care facility. A death under questionable circumstances the prior month brought negative attention to the facility, and the City of Omaha investigated. That was when the Omaha Welfare Board superintendent recommended closing the facility “unless a competent superintendent is appointed.” Together with Mayor Dahlman, they said that if the House’s board of directors didn’t improve conditions at the facility immediately it would be forcefully closed. After Rev. Savidge got the agreement of the majority of the board, the newspaper said he planned to buy it from the organization, open a new organization and continue operating a home for poor old people there. However, after a resident badly burned herself in the old house in May of that year, the paper announced the house was sold at “an exciting auction sale” for $6,000. The paper reported, “He expects to renovate the building for residence purposes and sell it.” That money went to cover the debts of the new structure.
A sign for the House of Hope, Home for Aged and Invalid People, with the tagline “Have faith in God” became one of the points of contention between Rev. Savidge and the president of the board of directors. The pastor thought the sign should be over the front door of the Florence facility, but the president immediately relegated it to the basement in the building.
After this point, Rev. Savidge seemed to have backed off, and although he continued his popular ministry his name wasn’t so frequently associated with the organization. All of the personal appeals, the ringing endorsements and the desperate pleas published in the newspaper during earlier years were gone then and all the operations of the organization read as formal, structured and intentional, without the determination of the founder. After 1917, pastors from other churches throughout the city were advertised speaking at the House of Hope almost every Sunday.
The organization owned several other buildings in North Omaha at this point, including structures near the old home and investment properties in Florence and at North 16th and California Streets. They occasionally made the news by the sale of these properties and the significant returns they earned on them.
In 1928 the House of Hope opened a new wing designed by architect George L. Fischer’s plans, which were different from Harry Lawrie’s original 1915 plans. With an additional 17 rooms and a chapel, the organization had room for 55 people when it was done. A $30,000 addition was completed in 1929, bringing the structure to its full capacity.
Becoming the Florence Home for the Aged
By 1929 the organization had changed its name to the Florence Home for the Aged. Rev. Savidge died in 1935. In 1936, the architectural firm of Frederick A. Henninger and Son designed an expansion for the home. Featuring 42 rooms and costing $70,000, the plan also expanded the auditorium and introduced new landscaping to the grounds.
When his son Mark died in 1950, the paper reported that 44 contributions to the home had been received by the organization in his memory. Rev. Savidge’s wife was a resident of the home at the time, and didn’t pass away until 1952.
Throughout the next decades, there were occasional picnics and other social, historical, religious and cultural events for the residents of the home. The Omaha Community Chest mentioned their requests in formal fundraising events, and the stories from the organization sometimes made the paper. However, from here they largely faded into the background of the Florence community and into the growing cacophony of charities demanding Omaha’s philanthropy.
In 1977, the Florence Home Healthcare Center was opened attached to the original building. That structure was called Florence Home Assisted Living.
For several years in the 1970s and 1980s the home was home to an annual Apple Festival and Bazaar, featuring crafts and baked goods. By the early 1980s, media reported that “The Florence Home for the Aged is a retirement center dedicated to serving the needs of the elderly with complete residential and nursing care facilities.”
In 1987 the facility expanded their parking lot to the south of the home, closing Sheffield Street with permission from the Omaha City Council. During this era the role of the home was regularly acknowledged in the community, with North High’s homecoming parade intentionally passing the facility and many other organizations making charitable contributions.
A managing organization for the institution was formed in 1989, and is called Midwest Geriatrics, Inc., or MGI. In the next decade, the organization established the Gerimed Long-Term Care Pharmacy and Unimed Community Pharmacy inside Florence Home Healthcare Center and bought the Royale Oaks Assisted Living at 4801 North 52nd Street.
In 1991, two additions to the facility were made to improve services. The first was a 12,500 square foot addition for the Andersen Family Activity Center. It was paid for by a former publisher of the Omaha World-Herald who grew up in Florence. The second addition was for the Creighton University Medical Center, a 7,500 square foot specialty center that was a collaboration between Creighton, the Florence Home and St. Joseph Hospital. There were 15 examination rooms and two procedure rooms added in that project, with a total cost of $750,000.
A historical children’s mural was painted at the building in 1995, and as of 2023 it’s still intact.
Recommitting to their original name, in 2003 MGI established the House of Hope Alzheimer’s Care facility at its North 52nd Street campus. The only adult day program in Omaha was created in 2005, and is based in the House of Hope.
Because of its age, in 2011 the original Florence Home structure was closed permanently. That same year, MGI opened the House of Hope Assisted Living center was opened “to meet the growing need in Omaha for traditional assisted living apartments.” The original 1916 structure and its 1924 and 1936 additions were demolished between 2012 and 2014. Its 1936 addition is still intact as of 2023.
House of Hope Today
MGI is an Omaha-based, nonprofit organization. Housed in the Florence Home, MGI manages the Florence Home Healthcare Center, the House of Hope Assisted Living and Memory Care, and Gerimed Pharmacy, as well as the Royale Oaks Assisted Living facility. Their mission is “To inspire the individuals we serve to live life to the fullest.”
In 2023, the House of Hope facility is located near North 56th and Ames Avenue. There is a 50,000 square foot building that houses House of Hope Alzheimer’s Care is House of Hope Assisted Living. According to a website, “These two communities are distinctly separate from each other yet share the architecture and design of a modern home.” According to MGI, the facility is the state’s largest dementia-specific assisted living community.
However, there aren’t a lot of markers of the organization’s history. The reality that a 130-year-old organization is responsible for housing thousands of seniors starting in an era when services were meager at best, its intriguing that there is not a webpage, a historical marker, or a placard telling the longtime story of the organization.
Maybe someday this retirement community will be acknowledged for its important role.
You Might Like…
MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE
Basics: History | Banks | Newspapers | Churches | Mayors
Public Places: Florence Main Street | Florence High School | The Mormon Tree | Mormon Bridge | Florence Boulevard | River Drive | J.J. Pershing Drive and Monument | Potter’s Field
Businesses: Florence Mill | Zestos | Florence Home | Florence Bank | Florence Mill | Florence Ferry | Florence Water Works | Florence Depot
Houses: Parker Mansion | Brandeis Country Home | Lantry-Thompson Mansion | Mitchell House | Hunt Mansion
Other Historic Places: Cutler’s Park | Winter Quarters | Vennelyst Park | Florence Building
People: James M. Parker | James Comey Mitchell | Florence Kilborn | Jacob Weber Sr.
Neighborhoods: Winter Quarters | Florence Field | Wyman Heights | High Point
Mormon History Locations: Mormon Pioneer Memorial Bridge | Site of the Mormon Tree | Cutler’s Park | Brigham Young House | Mormon Mill
Other: Directory of Florence Historic Places
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
- Autobiography of Charles W. Savidge
- “House of Hope Assisted Living,” Midwest Geriatrics, Inc.
BONUS
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