Omaha's schoolhouse history rocks with stories
Omaha's public schoolhouses, some from the past still with us in various uses, have stories galore.
With a correction needed here and there.
Let's start with Central High. The institution is not as old, by one year, as many histories maintain.
When the state gave back the territorial capital and grounds to Omaha in 1869 for use as a public school, the deteriorating building was condemned and torn down. A new building went up on Capitol Hill, costing $200,000 and requiring the first school bond vote ($100,000) for completion.
Construction lasted from the fall of 1870 to the spring of 1872. Omaha High opened its doors in September 1872 — not 1871 — under the auspices of the reorganized Board of Education.
These details, by superintendent of schools A.F. Nightingale, are found in the February 1874 first issue of "The High School" newspaper.
The core of present-day Central was built in stages around the 1872 building starting in 1900. Then the old building was removed.
In 1912, after a planned stone tower for the courtyard — the old building's footprint — was abandoned, the next idea was to roof over the courtyard. The Omaha Public Schools built the roof 69 years later, in 1981.
South Central, at 25th and L Streets, in 1916 was the first one-story brick schoolhouse in OPS, replacing the South Omaha school district's Central School frame building. When Omaha annexed South Omaha in 1915, OPS automatically added its schools.
South Central closed in 1929. The South Omaha American Legion post bought the building and among its activities were prize fights. When the Legion lost its lease in 1947, the Polish Home occupied the space for the next 62 years.
Since 1999, La Museo Latino has called it home.
When Cass School, 15th and Cass Streets, was replaced in 1900 for $50,000, it was the first to have its name on the building instead of a generic "Public School" above the schoolhouse door. The rationale was that many Omaha residents did not know the schools in the city.
There have been two Columbian Schools and two Hartman Schools. Although the newer Hartman should have a second "N."
The first Columbian School (1893-1965, renamed from West Omaha School), at 38th Avenue and Jones Street, was close to the city's fashionable Gold Coast district. Among its alums were actress Dorothy McGuire, naturalist Dr. Harold Gifford and businessman Robert H. Storz.
It was Columbian alums who succeeded in a campaign in the late 1960s to have a new school renamed for their alma mater. At 127th and Harney Streets, the new school is almost due west of its namesake.
The first Hartman School (1876-1894, a new building in 1884) was in Hartman's Addition at 15th and William Streets. The namesake was John George Hartman, who was secretary of the Dubuque (Iowa) Homestead Society that owned the land.
Today's Hartman School, at 66th Street and Hartman Avenue, was named for the street. Which was renamed from Webster Avenue in 1913 for Army major C.F. Hartmann — two "Ns" — after the commander of Fort Omaha led the relief effort, using 200 federal troops, following the city's Easter tornado.
Another oddity with this Hartman was its start. Six bungalows in the neighborhood were used for classes while the school was under construction. The practice also was used with Laura Dodge in Maple Village (six cottages, 1961-1964) before a permanent building and Tomahawk Hills (1963-1969, three cottages, no permanent building).
Saratoga School at 24th Street and Ames Avenue was rebuilt four times between 1864 and 1926. OPS, which annexed it in 1892, made the 1926 version the model for subsequent grade schools into the 1930s.
Its two floors contained 14 classrooms, an office and an assembly room that was in the center section. The large kindergarten room opened onto a special terrace separate from the rest of the playground.
Saratoga remains in use in OPS for its Integrated Learning Program.
Fairfax School at 40th and Pratt Streets was an anomaly, a two-room schoolhouse in the middle of a city: One room for kindergarten, the other for first grade, with a capacity of 65. It was in use from 1911 to 1974.
Ashland Park at 48th and Q Streets, prior to its annexation by OPS, was regarded as the largest rural grade school for enrollment in the world.
Pacific School (1869-1900) at 915 Pacific St. was the first brick schoolhouse. A new Pacific School stood at 11th and Pacific Streets from 1900 to 1929. The main office of the United States Postal Service now is on the site.
Beals Schools and Adams School, eight decades apart, sustained major damage from fires.
Beals' blaze was in 1903 in the frame buildings that had been the Ambler Place and Westside schools before they were moved to the 48th and Walnut Streets site in 1900.
The Feb. 2, 1903, blaze came after a snowstorm. The blaze in the north building was discovered by a passerby who ran 10 blocks to the nearest phone. Drifts were deep enough to slow the horse-drawn fire wagon. But the fire department was able to save the south building and most of the other building's fixtures and books.
Adams' fire, during the school day on April 27, 1987, consumed one of its two wooden structures that were the last remaining in the district. It was the eight-classroom south wing that was the original school built in the heart of the Keystone neighborhood northwest of 72nd and Maple Streets in 1925.
Western Hills, at 66th Street and Western Avenue, in 1953 was the first OPS school to open in a post-World War II subdivision. Fontenelle at 52nd and Spaulding Streets was next, two years later.
When Hickory School at Sixth and Hickory Streets was rebuilt in 1894, it was renamed Train School for George Francis Train, a real estate speculator and possible model for Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in Eighty Days." OPS closed Train School in 1984 and the building now is home to the privately operated Alpha School.
Ten former OPS schools have new living history as apartments or condos. In order of their school openings, they are Mason (1889), Columbian and Windsor (1893), Lincoln (1894), Saunders (1900), Vinton (1908), Park (1918), Robbins (1928), Edward Rosewater (1911) and Pickard (1924).
Stories of Omaha's history by Stu PospisilThat idea to move traffic from 30th Street has been bandied about since the 1930s.
Many Omahans of a certain age remember visiting Santa at Toyland in the Brandeis department store. The tradition dated to the 1900s when J.L. Brandeis and Sons were the proprietors of the Boston Store.
The Benson and the Hanscom are only two of the more than 70 theaters that sprung up outside downtown Omaha during the first half of the 20th century. The majority opened — and closed — during the era of silent films.
Omaha's first auto club, formed in 1902, included 20 of the city's 25 auto owners. Their first activity was a road rally to Blair and back.
Take a look back at the history of the Chermot Ballroom and some of the big names that played there.
The New Tower's front lobby had a Normandy castle motif with great stone walls, heraldic crests and wood-burning fireplace. The massive beams and lofty ceilings carried over into the Crest Dining Room.
A generation of Omahans — and newcomers to the city — likely are unaware that Peony Park, the major amusement spot from the 1930s through 1994, was at 78th and Cass Streets.
Pardon the pun, but another of my deep digs has turned up forgotten burial grounds across Douglas County.
The fame of Curo Springs was so far-reaching that in pioneer days — every fall and spring — people from 100 miles away (some crossing the Missouri in crude boats) would come to load up with the water.
Here are some books relating to Omaha and Nebraska history, many by local authors, to check out.
They were the twin banes in Omaha's pioneer years. One of them came back to life during the nighttime deluge that hit the area last weekend.
The Omaha Chamber of Commerce was prepared to remove its $35,000 hangar — built in modular sections — until the city was ready to build a municipal airport. Then came back-to-back windstorms.
Research has turned up a juicy nugget — the whereabouts of the burial site of Omaha, the Triple Crown horse in 1935. Hint: there are people resting every night on top of it.
Keystone has become the name applied to the area bounded by 72nd and 90th Streets, Maple Street, Military Avenue and Fort Street. It has expanded since Keystone Park was platted in 1907.
Ezra Meeker's crusade is credited for reawakening awareness of the Oregon Trail in the early 20th century. In the process, he erroneously linked Omaha to the trail and others took his word for it.
An Omaha real estate firm had the idea in the heyday of the '20s that it could sell 1,500 cottage lots platted away from the lakes and the Platte River. So what happened?
Check out a glimpse of Omaha's Black history before 1880.
The Dan Parmelee-Tom Keeler feud, which included an Old West shootout on the outskirts of old Elkhorn in December 1874, left Keeler dead and made news nationwide.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Omahans had their pick of drive-in movie theaters. Cars with families and cars with teens - some watching the film and others, well, you know - side by side, wired speakers hanging inside a car door.
Clontarf never was incorporated as a village, but functioned like one and wielded political clout larger than its 47 acres. There was a lawless element, too.
'Mascotte was a big joke but it looked good while it lasted.' The village had a factory, railroad depot, hotel, general store, school and about 40 cottages. By 1915, it was all gone.
West Dodge Road has been rebuilt over and over. And along the way, the Old Mill area has lost its mill, its hazardous Dead Man's Curve and the most beautiful bridge in the county.
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