There is a neighborhood in Omaha that’s been filled with small houses and dirt roads for almost a century. Sold with the promise of a truck farm for every resident, today the area is being chiseled away by industrial sprawl. A new plan by the City of Omaha plans to use the power of money and the promise of economic development to clear out the old houses there. This is a history of the Lakewood Gardens neighborhood in East Omaha.

Defining a Neighborhood

The entire section of Omaha from the cliffs east of Florence Boulevard to the Missouri River is referred to as East Omaha by residents. I lived in the Garden Valley Trailer Court on North 16th Street when I was a kid and went to Sherman Elementary for a few grades. For my child self, East Omaha was the land of the Monkey Man and the E.O. Rats, along with a tough tornado shelter and taking the Sherman Community Center van to the Adams Park swimming pool. By the time I was a teenager we moved to the Miller Park neighborhood, but the Sherman neighborhood hooked my imagination. I’ve been writing about its history for years, and here I’m going to share more than has ever been said online before. All that is to say that I respect East Omaha and its history and I share more of it here in honor of the families who have lived there for generations.

Although its rarely thought of this way, East Omaha has two neighborhoods. One is the Sherman neighborhood surrounding the Sherman Elementary School from North 20th to North 9th Street, from Boyd Park on the south to Arthur C. Storz Expressway on the north. The other neighborhood is a development called Lakewood Gardens, and that is what this article focuses on. Lakewood Gardens extends from North 9th Street on the west to North 2nd on the east; from Browne and Fort Streets on the south to Arthur C. Storz Expressway on the north. There is a section of land called Carter Lake View subdivision that extends from North 9th on the west to North 15th Street East on the east, from Browne and Camden Avenue on the south to Fort Street on the north, that is often addressed as part of Lakewood Gardens, too.

Early Developments

There was a time when the Missouri River whipped around the valley like the tail of a mountain lion, flooding and drying out the land in turn. Native American tribes including the Ponca, Omaha and others used this area for hunting and rest while traveling on the Missouri. When the Nebraska Territory was opened for white settlement in 1854, the land in present-day east Omaha was snatched up by speculators, and in 1857 it became part of a township called Saratoga. When that didn’t last, it was bought up again by private investors.

The Creighton brothers Ed and John came to Omaha from Ohio in the 1860s. Working across the western United States in a few industries, they amassed a huge fortunate and built a lot of early Omaha’s iconic institutions, especially their namesake Creighton University. In the 1870s they speculated in land between the old Florence Lake and near Carter Lake. Their intention was to get rich and they knew selling land in Omaha would help them build their financial portfolio.

Along the way an industrialist named Levi Carter bought the land just north of Carter Lake, and in 1900 his widow donated it to the City of Omaha for a park. A public beach was installed on the north end of the lake in the 1910s, and a little cabin community called Bungalow City was removed from the lake’s edge into the Creighton land that decade. Those were the first houses in the future neighborhood. A small school was opened at North 4th Avenue East and Fort Street. It was later moved and renamed Beechwood School.

Before John A. Creighton (1831-1907) died, in the 1890s he donated some the land to a nonprofit organization that sat on it for 20 years.

For several years starting at the turn of the century, there were lots for sale throughout the future neighborhood. Starting in 1910, the land immediately to the east of Lakewood Gardens, also once owned by the Creightons, was sold and became the first-ever Black-owned real estate subdivision in Omaha called Edgewood Park. That business didn’t work though, and the real estate community went back to the drawing board. That land didn’t develop for another decade until Lakewood Gardens was for sale in earnest.

In the late 1910s, the City of Omaha was concerned about flooding that struck the truck farms in East Omaha. They started building levees along the river by today’s OPPD power plant, but they decided to empty the old Florence Lake to help control the waters. It was completely emptied out by 1920.

Introducing Lakewood Gardens

It wasn’t until 1927 that the land was sold and subdivided for sale. The seller was the Byron Reed Real Estate Company, which branded it “Lakewood Gardens” and began selling lots.

Advertising 375 lots for sale, the west half of the property was split up into 50-foot wide lots facing the streets, and the east half was divided into quarter-acres, half-acres and acre lots. There was a huge apple orchard on the west end of the development, and because of that the Byron Reed Company marketed the land as farming plots. The apparently planted 10,000 grape vines, berry bushes, and apple and cherry trees too. They kept a “poultry expert” on commission to consult on building chicken houses, and began advertising the small farm lots right away.

The real estate ads suggested everything would grow in the Lakewood Gardens, including onions, potatoes, head lettuce, blackberries, chickens, turkeys and bees.

With advertisements saying that, “The soil in Lakewood Gardens is a rich, black loam, ideally adapted to garden and fruit. Many gardens in this vicinity have produced crops of vegetables whic have brought from $250 to $500 per year,” it should come as no surprise that they also told the stories of Mrs. T.L. Chambers, who raised $350 annually from a mixed veggie garden nearby; Mr. Eaver Swason, who sold $637.50 in radishes the previous year; and Mr. Joseph Neaman, who raised a season worth of onions that sold for $500.

Announcing “$50 Will Get You A Home in Lakewood Gardens, apparently, quality issues were a challenge initially when the subdivision opened for development, as soon after they began advertisements included the phrase “No tar paper shacks allowed” in their copy. Located outside the Omaha city limits, the ads said Douglas County Commissioners had voted to “gravel Fort Street, which runs through the addition; also 9th Street and Hartman Avenue. The remainder of the streets are all cindered. Permanent roads all year.”

Settling Into Permanency?

As the Lakewood Park neighborhood took off, the emerging development began playing host to all sorts of normal events, including births, deaths and weddings. In 1929, some excitement came up when a notorious check forgerer named John V. Williams who stole $300,000 was found living in a 3-bedroom house he bought in Lakewood Garden. His arrest made national headlines and caused a sensation in Omaha, where his home was located at North 3rd and Fort Streets.

From the 1930s onward, residents often shopped at Bob Weary’s grocery store on the northeast corner of North 16th and Fort Streets in the Sherman neighborhood. Called Bob’s Market, it was burned down in 2007. They rode the North 16th streetcar to Ames Avenue and walked home, and starting in 1942 they might have stopped at the Nite Hawkes Cafe on that corner. During the 1930s, some residents might have worked at the federal government’s Works Progress Administration CCC camp located in the northeast corner of Levi Carter Park, and later in the 1950s the might have attended an amusement park called Kiddieland and Pleasure Pier that stayed open in Carter Lake until 1960. The neighboring Omaha Municipal Airport opened in 1926 and grew into today’s Eppley Airfield in 1950.

In the 1930s, there were several houses built in the neighborhood. United States National Company, a mortgage lender, sold multiple lots and houses throughout the decade, and the model home sold by the company was popular. It was a Colonial Revival style bungalow and often sold with multiple lots because of the low prices. The sellers encouraged potential buyers to build cabins and small homes of all sorts.

In the 1930s the neighborhood Beechwood School was moved to Read Street near JJ Pershing Drive, and later it was merged with Sherman School.

Its hard to track down the lives of individual people who lived in Lakewood Gardens, since most of the young people were associated in the newspapers by their schools (Birchwood Grade School or Sherman) and most adults were named by address, which there were more than 150 of within the subdivision.There were a few nearby churches the residents attended as well, and residents were identified by those.

As for work, most people in the neighborhood seemed to make a living from their truck gardens or in another “cottage” industry at home, at least into the 1950s and 1960s. Around that time residents started commuting for work or working at the light industrial factories that began to creep into the surrounding region of Omaha.

Industrialization Strikes

Visions to promote the airport started growing after World War II. People were thinking about the fastest way to move drivers from downtown Omaha to Eppley, and plans for a new “outer drive” were revealed in 1952. After construction started, in 1954 the Omaha mayor said “a group of Omaha businessmen were sponsoring the move” to rename Omaha’s new Outer Drive to the airport in honor of a recently deceased businessman who promoted the building of the drive. In 1954 it was renamed the Abbott Drive, and it still encircles the Lakewood Gardens today. Still located outside the Omaha city limits, the plan required approval from the Douglas County Commissioners, and they got on board.

After Abbott Drive was created and connected to the already-existing JJ Pershing Drive, the Lozier Corporation built a large production facility in East Omaha in 1967. Other plants began moving into that area north of Lakewood Garden.

In 1970, the Omaha Industrial Foundation announced the creation of the Riverfront Industrial Park. Located north of Storz and west of JJ Pershing Drive, it was a grand plan to lure industry to the area just north of Lakewood Gardens. In 1971, a member of the East Omaha Drainage District Board said he thought it “would be grand” to put an industrial park in the area along with a man-made inland port covering “60 to 100 acres.” The chairman of the City of Omaha Dock Board said the proposed port was “a great idea if they can get it accomplished.” “Feed, seed, cement, fertilizer and steel” were estimated to be the products that would travel most through that new port. Promoting the new North Freeway and Interstate 680, the plan focused on new industry in Omaha as well as downtown industries that wanted to “relocate in modern plants.”

Around 1972, the Town of East Omaha south of the airport was mostly bought out by the City of Omaha, which was determined to build more industrial in that area, stop the rampant flood claims against the city’s poor levee system that didn’t protect the town effectively, and to prepare the area around Eppley Airfield for continuous growth. Some of those former residents moved into the Lakewood Gardens neighborhood.

It was 1973 before the City of Omaha annexed the neighborhood. When they did there were few improvements nominated and virtually nothing happened.

In 1977, plans were made public for the Arthur C. Storz Expressway. Named in memory of an Omaha businessman and “pioneer aviator” in Omaha, this highway was intended to be a high-speed connector to the airport. Construction on it started in 1982 and continued for several years, with its formal dedication in 1990. That initial plan initially resulted in minimal developments, and the inland port was not developed. In the next 15 years though, the industrial park north of present-day Storz Expressway was developed.

However, in 1979 more than 800 people gathered in the Florence Building to protest the Omaha Housing Authority’s plan for scattered site housing in the area, including construction of a four-plex in the Lakewood Gardens neighborhood.

Eventually, the Arthur C. Storz Expressway was completed, the JJ Pershing Drive was connected and Abbott Drive was used and redeveloped again. The Eppley Airfield grew exponentially, much of the area north of the Storz Expressway in-filled with industrial properties and the City of Omaha realized there isn’t much land left to redevelop for industrial purposes within city limits.

Demolishing the Neighborhood?

As of 2024, the neighborhood maintains a rural feeling not found elsewhere within the Omaha city limits. Most of the homes are reached on gravel roads with no sidewalks in the area. There are few streetlights and no curbs, and the presence of City of Omaha services is hard to see sometimes. Instead, people here live a mostly rural-type lifestyle. The homes’ values are noticeably below the city’s median rate and there isn’t a lot of interest among the residents for things to change.

In January 2024, the Nebraska governor announced plans for a nearly $90million grant to bulldoze the Lakewood Gardens neighborhood and replace it with a “business/industrial park.” The award, which would go to the Omaha Economic Development Corporation, would be used to help spend some of the $400million federal award granted to North and South Omaha by the federal government. It would pay for site preparation to provide “shovel-ready land for such businesses as manufacturers, warehouses and distributors.” Called “Lake View Business Park II,” this development would consume much of the original Lakewood Gardens development north of Carter Lake and south of the Storz Expressway, from Abbott Drive on the east to Ninth Street on the west.

However, the plan was immediately criticized by neighborhood residents and local politicians. North Omaha legislators Terrell McKinney and Justin Wayne co-wrote a statement and said they, “fell short of the transformative promise envisioned by the Legislature.” Residents started rallying together on social media and the process is still being unveiled.

What’s the future of the Lakewood Gardens neighborhood? It’s hard to say. In the meantime, this history shows it’s a place with deep roots and a long history. Maybe stopping tar paper shacks from being there was a great move when it first developed in 1927; almost a hundred years later, the government is treating the homes in the neighborhood as disposable as if they were tarpaper shacks though.

Maybe the future will be different? Only time will tell…

Adam’s Note: If you know more history of the neighborhood or have other information to share, please leave a comment!

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF EAST OMAHA
SEE ALSO: East Omaha History Tour
AREAS: Town of East Omaha | Carter Lake | Winspear Triangle | North Omaha Bottoms | Sherman | Sulphur Springs | Edgewood Park | Bungalow City | Squatter’s Row | Lakewood Gardens | East Omaha Factory District
BUSINESSES: East Omaha Truck Farms | Spanggaard Dairy | Carter White Lead Company | Nite Hawkes Cafe | Railroads
CARTER LAKE, IOWA: Courtland Beach | Omaha Rod and Gun Club | Carter Lake Club | Sand Point Beach and Lakeview Amusement Park | Omaha Auto Speedway | Lakeside Raceway |
CARTER LAKE PARK: Municipal Beach | Bungalow City | Pleasure Pier and Kiddieland | CCC Camp
PEOPLE: Selina Carter Cornish | Levi Carter | Granny Weatherford
TRANSPORTATION: Ames Avenue Bridge | Eppley Airfield | 16th and Locust Streets | JJ Pershing Drive | North 16th Street | Paine Airfield | Locust Street Viaduct
SCHOOLS: Beechwood School | Pershing School | Sherman School | St. Therese Catholic School
OTHER: The Burning Lady | St. Therese Catholic Church | 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition

Listen to our podcast “A History of East Omaha” online now!

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National Register of Historic Places Historic Districts in North Omaha: 24th and Lake Historic District | Benson Downtown Historic District | Country Club Historic District | Dundee/Happy Hollow Historic District | Fairacres Historic District | Fort Omaha Historic District | Minne Lusa Historic District | Nicholas Street Historic District
Historic Neighborhoods in North Omaha: Bedford Place | Belvedere Point | Bemis Park | Benson | Briggs | Bungalow City | Carter Lake, Iowa | Central Park | Clifton Hill | Collier Place | Creighton University | Crown Point | DeBolt | Druid Hill | East Omaha | Fairfax | Florence | Florence Field | Fort Omaha | Fontenelle View | Gifford Park | Gold Coast (Cathedral) | High Point | Jefferson Square | Kellom Heights | Kountze Place | Lakewood Gardens | Little Russia | Long School | Malcolm X Memorial | Miller Park | Miller Park Duplex Historic District | Monmouth Park | Montclair | Near North Side | North Downtown Omaha | Omaha View | Orchard Hill | Plum Nelly | Prairie Park | Prettiest Mile in Omaha | Prospect Place | Raven Oaks | Redman | Saratoga | Sherman | Squatter’s Row | Sulphur Springs | Ponca Hills | Wakonda | Walnut Hill | Winspear Triangle | Wyman Heights
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