North Omaha is a community of patchwork neighborhoods. Some of these neighborhoods have been formally lost to time, but some people remembering them. This is the history of one of them called Briggs.

Established in 1885, the village of Briggs was a layover village between Florence and Calhoun. It was built near the forgotten townsite for Cutler Park, the first-ever European town in Nebraska, established in 1846.

With a post office established in April 1892, Briggs was named in memory of Ansel Briggs (1806-1881), a Florence pioneer and former governor of Iowa. Located between Garvin Street on the south and Highway 36/McKinley Street on the north, from North 53rd on the east to North 64th on the west, the town was originally little more than a whistle stop on the railroad.

As part of a growth spurt in Florence in the 1890s, the village was informally established in 1892 when a post office was opened there. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad aka The Omaha Road went through the village, and there was a school there as well.

A small railroad flag station northwest of Florence called the Briggs Depot didn’t appear on the regular time tables from the railroad company. With only an occasional train stop there for passengers, most of it’s freight was farm goods and cattle shipped away from the little stop.

Along with the post office and railroad depot, there were a few other institutions in Briggs over the years. From the 1890s through 1949, there was a powder magazine for a large manufacturing company located on a farm in Briggs.

Along with St. John’s Lutheran church, which was started for Germans in 1900, the village was home to the Briggs Community United Brethren Church from 1923 to 1957.

As early as 1890, the DuPont company kept a stockpile on a farm near Briggs. DuPont is a major chemical company founded in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771-1834). Started as a gunpowder mill, DuPont built their facility on the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, aka The Omaha Road, near North 52nd and McKinley. Originally starting around 1890, it operated on a farm owned by Grant L. Fox (1867–1931), eventually having five brick buildings for ammunition demolition and storage purposes. After a few big explosions over the decades, it closed permanently around 1949. On the map above you can see two parcels near present-day N. 52nd and Raven Oaks Dr. marked “DuPont” and “DuPont Co.”

However, its Briggs unit proved to be fleeting. In 1904, the Florence Items newspaper remarked that Briggs had “perhaps what is the smallest post office in Nebraska.” Costing $100 to build, it was noted as being ten feet by twelve feet, “and not as high as its width.” Closing in 1913, eventually the small country school in the village closed, too. The depot was sold and moved away from the tracks in 1913, but still stands today at the site it was moved to on nearby Calhoun Road.

Today, signs of the village of Briggs are almost completely gone. The federal government still recognizes Briggs as a distinct geographical point, and the streets remain, as well as St. John’s Lutheran Church. But there are no other indications Briggs ever existed otherwise. Without a historical marker, historical signage or any other reference to its old identity, the village will likely remain missing forever.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS IN NORTH OMAHA
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
Lost Towns in North Omaha: Benson | Briggs | Cutler’s Park | DeBolt | East Omaha | Florence | Saratoga | Sulphur Springs | Winter Quarters