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35-547: Bordered by the historic neighborhoods of the Near North Side , Saratoga and East Omaha , Kountze Place was an early upper middle class residential suburb developed by Omaha banker Herman Kountze in 1883. It was originally accessible only via streetcar. In 1898 Kountze Place was home to the Trans-Mississippi Exposition , a showcase for Nebraska's agricultural and Omaha's urban lifestyles. In 1899 some of

70-510: Is bordered by Cuming Street on the south, 30th on the west, 16th on the east, and Locust Street to the north. Countless momentous events in Omaha's African American community happened in the Near North Side, including the 1865 establishment of the first Black church in Omaha, St. John's AME ; the 1892 election of the first African American state legislator, Dr. Matthew Ricketts ; the 1897 hiring of

105-748: Is not used within the city anymore. Instead, several smaller areas within the old boundaries are identified as neighborhoods including the Long School neighborhood, the Concord Square neighborhood and the Conestoga Place neighborhood. The 24th and Lake Historic District and the Nicholas Street Historic District are both within the former boundaries of the Near North Side, as well. Bordered by several historic neighborhoods, including Bemis Park , East Omaha , Kountze Park and Saratoga ,

140-459: Is one of the best reasons why you should live in this beautiful addition. Paved streets, permanent walks, water, sewer and gas. No hills, no hollows, good schools, churches, shaded streets, good neighborhood. Within 10 or 15 minutes' drive or street car ride of the retail and wholesale district, reached by 3 car lines, the Dodge, North 24th and Sherman Ave. The Florence Boulevard runs through the center of

175-408: Is the neighborhood immediately north of downtown. It forms the nucleus of the city's historic African-American community, and its name is often synonymous with the entire North Omaha area. Originally established immediately after Omaha was founded in 1854, the Near North Side was once confined to the area around Dodge Street and North 7th Street. Eventually, it gravitated west and north, and today it

210-507: The College World Series , and as the new home for Creighton's baseball program. The Storm Chasers opened their own new stadium in the southern suburb of Papillion in 2011. Currently the neighborhood has a population of 37,727 and is roughly 65% African-American. The City of Omaha has recognized many buildings and homes on the Near North Side as landmarks. Several have been recognized as nationally significant as well and listed on

245-715: The National Register of Historic Places and designated as Omaha Landmarks by the City of Omaha. Former landmarks in the area included the Presbyterian Theological Seminary , built in 1902 at 3303 North 21st Place. It was closed in 1943. Omaha University , now called the University of Nebraska at Omaha, was once located on one city block at 24th and Pratt Streets on the Redick estate . Their proposed "magnificent campus"

280-522: The National Register of Historic Places . 41°16′37″N 95°56′30″W  /  41.27694°N 95.94167°W  / 41.27694; -95.94167 St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church (Omaha, Nebraska) St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first church for African Americans in Nebraska , organized in North Omaha in 1867. It is located at 2402 North 22nd Street in

315-565: The Near North Side neighborhood. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The building was constructed in the center of Omaha's North Side in the Prairie School architecture style. Prairie School architecture is rare, and this architectural gem in urban Nebraska is particularly unusual for being designed and built in the 1920s, after the Prairie Style's rapid loss of popularity beginning after 1914. Organized in

350-557: The 1960s, it was an indication of changing tastes in music and the influence of television, but also of decline. Wallace Thurman , widely considered one of the great writers of the Harlem Renaissance , grew up in the Near North Side, along with jazz saxophonist Preston Love , political leader George Wells Parker and military hero Alfonza W. Davis . Malcolm X 's father Earl Little was a pastor in Near North Omaha when Malcolm

385-750: The Addition and the prices only about one‐half what they are asking for no better lots in the Western or Southwestern part of the City. Some of Kountze Place was affected by the Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913, with landmarks such as Trinity Methodist Church to be rebuilt in other parts of the city. Additionally around this time, many of Kountze Place's richer residents were lured to areas such as Bemis Park and Gold Coast with promises of higher land values. Several buildings and homes in Kountze Place are listed on

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420-622: The African American community. Many African Americans moved to Omaha from 1910 to 1950 as part of the Great Migration . St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church and Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church were among the churches founded to serve the black community. The Easter Sunday tornado of 1913 destroyed much of the Near North Side's businesses and neighborhoods. The Idlewild Pool Hall at 2307 North 24th Street in

455-615: The Depression, the federal government built the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects in Near North Omaha to improve housing for working families. In 1938 it was a significant improvement over where most had been living, as was a counterpart project in South Omaha. The first residents were Eastern European immigrant families. Hose Company #12, and later Hose Company #11, hired the first African-American firefighters to serve

490-473: The Near North Omaha business area. Construction of the North Omaha Freeway in the 1970s is regarded as having added to the decline of Near North Omaha. Research showed that the area experienced a 30 percent housing loss and major increase in crime following construction of the freeway, which broke up the neighborhood. Additional street planning efforts to disrupt the community are believed to include

525-401: The Near North Side is perhaps the oldest, and most significant, of each of these. The community was originally platted in 1855 as Scriptown and lots were awarded to Nebraska Territory legislators who voted for Nebraska statehood. Consequently, the area was developed quickly, and included a number of prominent homes. The area grew throughout the last half of the 1800s as Omaha's suburb, with

560-602: The Near North Side. One of the two stations was located at 20th and Lake Streets. During the height of the Jazz Age , the Dreamland Ballroom was the highlight of what is widely regarded as Near North Omaha's golden years. It was the largest venue for performances by local and national musicians. From the 1920s through the early 1960s, the neighborhood's cultural scene was vibrant. When the Dreamland Ballroom closed in

595-729: The bodies. The victims were then removed to the Webster Telephone Exchange Building at 2213 Lake Street. More than 50 people died at one intersection during the storm. One report identified this building as a central headquarters in recovering the community, as the many operators went to work despite the building missing all of its windows. In September 1919, after Red Summer , a mob of white ethnics, chiefly immigrants and immigrant descendants from South Omaha , lynched an African-American worker named Will Brown . The riot followed weeks of increasing tensions inflamed by local newspapers and vice boss Tom Dennsion. Brown's body

630-463: The community's boundaries. After the riot, landlords and developers began using race-restrictive covenants . Properties for rent and sale were restricted on the basis of race, with the primary intent of keeping North Omaha "black" and the rest of the city "white". These agreements were held in place with redlining , a system of segregated insuring and lending reinforced by the federal government. These restrictions were ruled illegal in 1940. During

665-652: The community's culture. Recently the Omaha Storm Chasers proposed building a $ 54 million stadium as part of a $ 170 million redevelopment near the Near North Side Omaha's Qwest Center and Creighton University . However, while the stadium plan went through, the Storm Chasers chose to pull out of the project, feeling that the capacity of 24,000 was too large for the team's needs. The new TD Ameritrade Park Omaha , opened in 2011, will now be used primarily for

700-645: The community's historic legacy and the larger story of African Americans in the Great Plains has been interpreted by the Great Plains Black History Museum , started by activist Bertha Calloway . This followed her founding of the Negro History Society in 1962. Her nephew has run the museum since Calloway's sickness has caused her retirement. The bi-annual Native Omaha Days and the long-running Omaha Star newspaper continue to celebrate

735-455: The construction of a large hotel blocking 16th Street and the conversion of North 24th Street to only one-way traffic. In 1976, Omaha Public Schools began court-ordered busing to achieve integration, which led many Near North Omaha students away from their community for the first time. This period of social activism was when another generation of leaders emerged, such as Ernie Chambers , Brenda Council and Rev. Ken Vavrina . Since 1975,

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770-514: The corner of Eighteenth and Webster Streets in Near North Omaha . The original church was built for $ 1,000. The longest standing member of the church was Mrs. Eliza Turner, who until her death in 1938 regularly attended St. John's for seventy years. Today St. John hosts a thriving congregation, and the church serves in a variety of capacities to the surrounding community. St. John's has been housed in three different churches. The second church

805-541: The early 2000s both of the projects were torn down and replaced with other public housing schemes, including developments with a mix of market-rate housing. In July 1966 the National Guard was called in from Fort Omaha to quell two days of rioting in North Omaha after local youth burnt down several area businesses along the 24th Street corridor. That same year A Time for Burning , a documentary featuring North Omaha,

840-465: The fall of 1865, the first minister of St. John was Rev. W. T. Osborne, who was also the first African American minister in Nebraska. The first meetings being held at a private residence on Capitol Avenue and Ninth Street in present-day downtown Omaha. After worshiping for a short time on Harney Street, the church moved to Douglas and Fifteenth Streets until the summer of 1865. That year a lot was purchased on

875-524: The first Black teacher in Omaha, Ms. Lucy Gamble, the 1910 Jack Johnson riots , the Omaha race riot of 1919 that almost demolished the neighborhood and many other events. The vernacular term "North North Side" fell out of favor in Omaha in the 1970s when the Urban League of Nebraska insisted the media and politicians stop using it, as it was a synonym for white misconceptions of Black people in Omaha. Today, it

910-548: The first streetcars running up and down its main thoroughfares of 24th and 30th Streets. After the Trans-Mississippi Exposition occurred just north of the area in 1898, Kountze Park was developed to serve the area's widely varied racial and ethnic populations. Omaha's Jewish community was founded by eastern European immigrants in the Near North Side neighborhood. Two Jewish synagogues provided social and cultural activities. Other families were secular and Socialist, as were renowned author Tillie Olsen 's parents. Olsen worked in

945-408: The heart of the neighborhood was the scene of the greatest loss of life. The owner, C. W. Dillard, and 13 customers were killed as they tried to take shelter on the south side of the pool hall's basement. The victims were crushed by falling debris or overcome by smoke from fires begun when wood stoves used for heating overturned. The postcard image shows the slow process of removing the debris to recover

980-515: The land that the Expo occupied was developed into Kountze Park . The area around the park was filled in with housing afterwards, with some Exposition buildings being converted into grand houses. A March 1907 Omaha Sunday Bee advertisement promotes Kountze Place: Make your home in Koutnze Place. Where you will find more homes of Omaha's best business men than in any other addition in the city. This alone

1015-495: The meatpacking plant as a young woman and became a labor organizer in the 1930s before being able to write full-time. Holy Family Catholic Church served successive congregations of German, Irish, Italian and Czech immigrants in the area. There was such a substantial community of Swedes in the area that a portion of the neighborhood was called "Little Stockholm." The bustling 24th Street corridor also served these communities, with mixed European immigrant communities mingling with

1050-491: The university was located just south in the posh Kountze Place suburb. With new bleachers built to accommodate a crowd of a thousand, the Saratoga Field was home to OU's team until 1951. UNO moved to its present location in 1929. 41°17′21″N 95°56′49″W  /  41.28917°N 95.94694°W  / 41.28917; -95.94694 Near North Side (Omaha, Nebraska) The Near North Side of Omaha, Nebraska

1085-514: Was born there in 1926, but the family moved away when he was small. The mid-century loss of 10,000 industrial jobs from restructuring of railroads and the meat processing industry meant increasing poverty among people who stayed. The demographics of the housing projects changed along with conditions in the city. By the late 1960s, the Logan Fontenelle Projects were inhabited almost entirely by poor and low-income African Americans. By

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1120-449: Was burned after his death. After the mob was done with Brown, they attacked police cars and blacks on the street. They were prevented from invading the Near North Side by soldiers called in from Fort Omaha . In addition, the military commander stationed troops in South Omaha to prevent any more mobs from forming. Throughout its history, students attended a variety of area schools, including Omaha High and Tech High , both just outside

1155-538: Was filmed. Later it was nominated for an Oscar award for best documentary. In April 1968, the National Guard quelled North Omaha riots that erupted after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the summer of 1969, riots broke out after a white Omaha police officer fatally shot a 14-year-old girl named Vivian Strong in the back, in the Logan Fontenelle Projects. Three days of rioting effectively destroyed

1190-445: Was located at North 25th and Grant Streets, and was notably designed by Omaha's first African American architect, Clarence W. Wigington , which was built around the turn of the century. When the congregation outgrew that building, they located a new place to build at 2402 North 22nd Street, St. John A.M.E. Church building was designed by local architect Frederick S. Stott in 1921 in the Prairie School style. In 1947 an auditorium

1225-660: Was slated to be placed between 21st and 25th Avenues, bounded by Kountze Park and the Carter Lake Park . Original faculty came from the aforementioned Seminary, as well as Bellevue College . The first class meetings occurred at the Redick Mansion at 24th and Pratt. In 1927 businessmen formed the North Omaha Activities Association in order to redevelop Saratoga School's playing field into a football field for Omaha University 's football team. At that time

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