For decades, a lot of North Omaha was a middle class haven, including the area once called the Kenwood-Holy Angels neighborhood. With several grocery stores, a drug store, a movie theater and more, it should be no surprise that there was once a car dealer at North 30th and Fowler Avenue. This is a history of the Burkhard-Gerelick Ford dealership in North Omaha.

According to research by Omaha historian Micah Evans, Phil Gerelick (1906-1986) was a star basketball player at Central High School, UNL and Creighton University.  In the early 1940s, Burkhard was in the car business with a dealership at Florence Boulevard and Ames Avenue.

I have found that Vince Burkhard (1896-1991) was native of Omaha who graduated from Creighton Prep High School in 1915. After working for Ford, in 1947 he went into business with Gerelick, and together they co-owned a car dealership they called Burkhard-Gerelick Motors.

Originally opened on the corner of Florence Boulevard and Ames Avenue, Burkhard-Gerelick Motors opened as a new car dealer. In 1949 they opened the Burkhard-Gerelick Ford showroom at 4719 North 30th Street, between Fowler and Larimore. As “the North Omaha representative of Ford Motors,” the dealership was recognized as a key in the business community. After they moved out the Ames Avenue location, another new car dealer called Merno Motors moved into sell Studebaker cars.

In 1948, the dealership was credited with bringing baseball phenom Babe Ruth to Omaha. Babe was working with the Ford Motors Corporation on public relations, and as a Ford dealer, Gerelick brought Babe Ruth to Omaha where he visited Boys Town.

In February 1954 Burkhard sold his interest to Gerelick and retired. Gerelick renamed the dealership after himself, operating it as a sole proprietorship from then on. Running the business for 25 years afterwards.

After the dealership closed, the building became the Nebraska State Department of Roads office for the construction of the North Freeway. The site was also home to Carl’s Used Cars, too, and after that it was Kimball’s Kar Korner.

Today, Burkhard-Gerelick Ford is long gone, and the building at 30th and Fowler is long gone too. Few people remember what was on the site 50 years ago, nor do they want to remember. The building was razed in the early 1980s.

There were various ideas over the years for the site. In 1987, Omaha World-Herald reporter Cindy Gonzalez said a Baptist church was going to build a large campus there, but that didn’t happen.

Maybe some day that will change.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE KENWOOD / HOLY ANGELS NEIGHBORHOOD
STREETS: 30th and Ames Commercial District
BUSINESSES: Beacon Theater | Prairie Park Club | Uncle Sam Breakfast Food Company | Iten-Barmettler Biscuit Company (US Mills) | U.S. Brush Company
NEIGHBORING: Collier Place | Bedford Place | Saratoga Neighborhood | Miller Park | Fort Omaha
OTHER: Holy Angels Parish | Monmouth Park Elementary | Charles Washington Branch Library |
RELATED: Belt Line Railway | North Freeway | Streetcars

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