Some buildings in North Omaha pop, either telling a story by their appearance or are interesting for what we know happened there. Other buildings seem plain, nondescript, and just don’t ask us to learn about them. This is a history of one of those located by 24th and Lake Street. This is a history of the Mansion Cafe.

First Life

The Mansion Cafe was built at 2304 Grace Street in 1958. However, that wasn’t the first structure there. Originally, there was a single story house on the lot that was built in the 1890s with three bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and a kitchen. After serving as a single family house for 20 years, in 1919, the year of the Will Brown lynching, the original owner sold the house and moved away.

Soon after it was sold, the building was converted into a duplex with the owner living in half of it. In the early 1920s, the owner was arrested for selling illegally gained war bonds worth $500. Over the next 15 years, there were holdups and police raids on the rented side of the building, especially by so-called “liquor patrol” during Prohibition. Once, 20 cases of beer and a gallon of whiskey were found there; another time, there were ten cases of beer.

In 1935, I found the first advertisement allowing Black people to live there. Towards the 1940s, the owner of the house was caught on charges of keeping a disorderly house. After he returned from serving in the Navy during World War II, Wardell Turner (1925-??) bought the house as an investment and lived in one side. In 1954, a fire broke out that cost $500 to repair, but the next year in 1955, the house burned down in a kitchen fire. Apparently the house sat untouched for a year, and in 1956 the City condemned it and it was bulldozed soon afterwards.

Second Life

Located just off North 24th and Grace Streets, this location was good for a secondary-type business.

In February 1958, Joe M. Buford (1900-1974) and his wife Sara Buford got a permit to build a restaurant at 2304 Grace Street, and in September, they opened the Mansion Cafe. Built as a single-story box made of cinder blocks, it was purpose-built as a restaurant. Originally from Mississippi, the couple moved to Omaha to build their restaurant. Before coming north, Joe was the chef at the University of Old Miss. He and Sara had one son, Henry Buford of Chicago.

Advertised as being “built from the ground upward,” the owners of the Mansion Cafe advertised it as a new restaurant “to suit your taste and needs; Home cooked Southern foods.” They also boasted a private dining room, and proudly posted their names on every ad. By 1960, the business was called the Green Mansion Cafe for a while. Their ads said, “We serve home cooked meals daily including hot bread and homemade pastries, specializing in chicken how you like it. Try us for a good meal.” The next year the Joe Buford applied for a liquor license.

It was 1966 when the business was first advertised for sale, and it stayed that way. In 1975, Joe Buford died. The business was still running and for sale in 1978, marking more than a decade since it first entered the market. Sara Buford left the record in Omaha after that though.

Third Life

In 1983, the building was for sale again, this time advertised with an “interior remodeled… includes equipment plus extra lot.” By 1985, Mister B BBQ was there, but after it was robbed that year of more than $300 in equipment, it showed up again in 1987 as the Cadillac Cafe.

In 1992, Ronald Traynham applied to switch the building to residential usage, but later the same year it received a conditional use permit as a daycare, and Traynham opened A-1 Child Care opened there. When the EPA studied lead poisoning in North Omaha in 1999, Traynham was quoted in the paper saying it was a good thing even though his facility was found to be above safe levels. “I think its good to test and remedy the situation,” the newspaper quoted him saying. “But don’t make it seem like that’s the only problem.” His building was found safe, but the land around it had to be remediated.

In 2003, the building was for sale again, and was given approval to be used as a daycare, and in 2007 the business was referred to as Unity Childcare. In 2026, the building is noted by the country assessor’s office as being in fair condition and is still noted as a daycare. At 1,330 square feet, it is worth approximately $59,000 and was last sold in 2019.

Today, there’s no indication that this plain building was built as a restaurant opened by a Black entrepreneurial couple from Mississippi, and maybe there never will be, either.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF OMAHA’S NEAR NORTH SIDE
GROUPS: Black People | Jews and African Americans | Jews | Hungarians | Scandinavians | Chinese | Italians
EVENTS: Redlining | North Omaha Riots | Stone Soul Picnic | Native Omaha Days Festival
BUSINESSES: Club Harlem | Dreamland Ballroom | Omaha Star Office | 2621 North 16th Street | Calhoun Hotel | Warden Hotel | Willis Hotel | Broadview Hotel | Carter’s Cafe | Live Wire Cafe | Fair Deal Cafe | Metoyer’s BBQ | Skeet’s | Storz Brewery | 24th Street Dairy Queen | 1324 N. 24th St. | Ritz Theater | Alhambra Theater | 2410 Lake Street | Carver Savings and Loan Association | Blue Lion Center | 9 Center Variety Store | Bali-Hi Lounge | Independent Telephone Exchange Building
CHURCHES: St. John’s AME Church | Zion Baptist Church | Mt. Moriah Baptist Church | St. Philip Episcopal Church | St. Benedict Catholic Parish | Holy Family Catholic Church | Bethel AME Church | Cleaves Temple CME Church | North 24th Street Worship Center
HOMES: A History of | Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects | The Sherman | The Climmie | Ernie Chambers Court aka Strelow Apartments | Hillcrest Mansion | Governor Saunders Mansion | Memmen Apartments
SCHOOLS: Kellom | Lake | Long | Cass Street | Izard Street | Dodge Street
ORGANIZATIONS: Red Dot Athletic Club | Omaha Colored Baseball League | Omaha Rockets | YMCA | Midwest Athletic Club | Charles Street Bicycle Park | DePorres Club | NWCA | Elks Hall and Iroquois Lodge 92 | American Legion Post #30 | Bryant Resource Center | People’s Hospital | Bryant Center
NEIGHBORHOODS: Long School | Logan Fontenelle Projects | Kellom Heights | Conestoga | 24th and Lake | 20th and Lake | Charles Street Projects
INDIVIDUALS: Edwin Overall | Rev. Russel Taylor | Rev. Anna R. Woodbey | Rev. Dr. John Albert Williams | Rev. John Adams, Sr. | Dr. William W. Peebles | Dr. Craig Morris | Dr. John A. Singleton, DDS | Dr. Aaron M. McMillan | Mildred Brown | Dr. Marguerita Washington | Eugene Skinner | Dr. Matthew O. Ricketts | Helen Mahammitt | Cathy Hughes | Florentine Pinkston | Amos P. Scruggs | Nathaniel Hunter | Bertha Calloway
OTHER: 26th and Lake Streetcar Shop | Webster Telephone Exchange Building | Kellom Pool | Circus Grounds | Ak-Sar-Ben Den | Harlem Renaissance

BONUS!