A History of Mount Olive Lutheran Church

As North Omaha grew and thrived, it needed more congregations for more parishioners to gather and worship. Between historic Florence and the suburban Minne Lusa neighborhood, one congregation grew to become home to memories and the future. This is a history of the Mount Olive Lutheran Church in North Omaha.

Before World War I, the Florence Field neighborhood was farming land between the town of Florence and a few small neighborhoods crouching up south of it. One was a fantastically envisioned development called Minne Lusa, and the other was the Miller Park neighborhood, ostensibly built to be homes for men stationed at Fort Omaha but actually just suburban sprawl. During the Great War, the Florence Field served as a training ground for the Fort Omaha Balloon School. When developer Charles Martin needed a new development after the war, he bought the land that was the balloon school and platted it, calling it the Florence Field.

Originally organized as Trinity English Evangelical Lutheran congregation, their first meeting was in the Florence Hotel in 1925. Their name was important at the time because it distinguished them from the older Trinity Danish-Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was located in South Omaha. There was also a Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Saratoga neighborhood at North 25th and Ames Avenue from the 1890s through 1913 that eventually moved to North 30th and Redick. However, the Trinity that became Mount Olive was also called Florence Lutheran Church in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

This was a church in Florence, Nebraska, in 1903. — This was the Florence Methodist Church at N. 30th and Mormon Street in 1903.

The church was established as part of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, which is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination.

In 1927, a meeting was held at the old Florence City Hall “with a view to organizing a congregation,” and for several years they met at the old Florence Methodist Church at 8305 North 30th Street, across from the Florence Park near Mormon Street. The church was officially incorporated in 1936, and bought a lot in Florence in 1938. However, they didn’t built then. The congregation officially changed its name to Mount Olive in 1942.

Within twenty years, the Florence Field neighborhood had mostly filled in. The post-World War II housing boom that struck Omaha completed the development, featuring saltboxes and other small homes for veterans using federal housing money to buy them. Shopping amenities started filling in along North 30th Street, including a Safeway near Titus, a Reed’s Ice Cream stand by Reed, and other concessions along the way. However, the neighborhood needed churches.

This is the exterior of Mount Olive Lutheran Church at 7301 N. 28th Ave. in North Omaha.

Developer Charles Martin made no concessions for churches in his Minne Lusa neighborhood, located just south of Florence Field. In 1949, the Mount Olive Lutheran congregation got a permit to construct their new building on the southeast corner of North 28th and Weber Street, tucked into the north end of Florence Field.

Father-and-son architects Charles W. Shaver (1890-1961) and John A. Shaver (1918-2010) designed the building. Given a 25-foot setback on both sides, it was designed to be a distinctive space in the neighborhood. Dedicated in 1950, the design is called modified Gothic. At 109 feet by 30 feet, the exterior was covered in Wisconsin lannon stone with limestone trim on the exterior. The interior featured a blond finish on woodwork. The art glass windows included 33 Christian symbols, and there were seven rooms for Sunday School. Seating more than 295, there was originally room for an additional 125 congregants in the rear of the sanctuary. The original construction cost was $85,000.

This is the interior of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in North Omaha.

The Ladies’ Aid of Mount Olive was formed to support the congregation’s success, and held a Silver Anniversary in 1950 at their new church. The church dedicated a two-story educational wing in 1967. In 1983, the congregation installed storm windows on the church’s stained glass windows to conserve energy. In the 2010s the church hosted meetings for a large sewer improvement project.

Today, Mount Olive Lutheran Church continues serving the North Omaha community. With regular Sunday services and Sunday School, the church holds special events, hosts Vacation Bible School, and is active in a variety of ways throughout the community. The neighborhoods they serve include Florence Field, Minne Lusa, Florence, Miller Park, Ponca Hills, Belvedere, Sherman and beyond.

In 2021, Mount Olive started sponsoring and hosting North Omaha History Presentations by Adam Fletcher Sasse. Since then, more than 100 people have attended sessions on a variety of topics.

You Might Like…

Elsewhere Online

Mount Olive Lutheran Church official website
3-D Tour of Mount Olive on Youtube

BONUS

This is the interior of the Mount Olive Lutheran Church at 7301 N. 28th Ave. in the Florence Field neighborhood of North Omaha. Courtesy of Mount Olive Lutheran Church.