The City of Omaha Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission, established in 1977, is the Omaha city government's a nine-member board responsible for recommending official Omaha Landmarks to the Omaha City Council. The Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission is that was established by ordinance in 1977 to review and recommend to the City Council on all matters pertaining to the designation of individual buildings, sites, objects, or entire districts of local historical significance. The commission is staffed by the Landmarks Division of the Omaha Planning Department.
The first comprehensive preservation ordinance in Nebraska was adopted by the Omaha City Council in 1977. [1] The commission was created after the demolition of the Old Post Office, when the pro-preservation organization Landmarks, Inc. advocated its creation. [2]
Patterned after successful legislation in Seattle, New York City and Savannah, Georgia, the "Landmarks Heritage Preservation Ordinance" created the Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission. The first comprehensive preservation ordinance in Nebraska, its purpose focuses on designating structures and districts of local significance; regulate work done on designated buildings; and identify and implement overall goals and objectives for preservation in the city. [3]
The Commission has nine members, including an architect, a curator, a professional historian, three members active in a preservation-related field, two laypersons and an owner or operator of a business or property within a landmark heritage preservation district. [4] Commission members are appointed by the Mayor to terms of three years, subject to confirmation by the City Council. The Commission selects its own chairman and rules of procedure. The body generally meets monthly with special meetings held by call of the chairman. [5] The Nebraska State Historical Society funded the development of the Commission's website, and a Geographic Information System (GIS) for historic properties in 2000. [6]
As of 2007, more than 90 buildings and structures in Omaha have received Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives, and have been listed by the City of Omaha as Certified Historic Rehabs. [7]
Thomas Rogers Kimball was an American architect in Omaha, Nebraska. An architect-in-chief of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898, he served as national President of the American Institute of Architects from 1918 to 1920 and from 1919 to 1932 served on the Nebraska State Capitol Commission.
The Malcolm X House Site located at 3448 Pinkney Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, marks the place where Malcolm X first lived with his family. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and is also on the Nebraska list of heritage sites.
The Webster Telephone Exchange Building is located in North Omaha, Nebraska. It was designed by the well-known Omaha architect Thomas Rogers Kimball. After the Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913, the building was used as the center of recovery operations. In 1933, American Bell donated the building to the Omaha Urban League.
The Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District, roughly bounded by Jackson, 15th, and 8th Streets, as well as the Union Pacific main line, is located in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Today this historic district includes several buildings listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Union Pacific Depot and the Burlington Station.
The Bemis Park Landmark Heritage District is located in North Omaha, Nebraska. Situated from Cuming Street to Hawthorne Avenue, Glenwood Avenue to 33rd Street, Bemis Park was annexed into Omaha in 1887, and developed from 1889 to 1922. The district was designated an Omaha Landmark in 1983.
Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church, located at 3105 North 24th Street, was formed in 1954 as an integrated congregation in North Omaha, Nebraska. Originally called the North Presbyterian Church, the City of Omaha has reported, "Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church is architecturally significant to Omaha as a fine example of the Neo-Classical Revival Style of architecture." It was designated a City of Omaha landmark in 1985; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as North Presbyterian Church in 1986.
The Harry Buford House is a historic house located at 1804 North 30th Street in North Omaha, Nebraska. Built in 1929 in a Period Revival style, it was designated a landmark by the City of Omaha in 1983.
Little Bohemia, or Bohemian Town, is a historic neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska. Starting in the 1880s, Czech immigrants settled in this highly concentrated area, also called "Praha" (Prague) or "Bohemian Town", bounded by South 10th Street on the east, South 16th Street on the west, Pierce Street on the north, and Martha Street on the south, with a commercial area went along South 13th and South 14th Streets, centered on William Street. It was located south of downtown, and directly west of Little Italy. A portion of the neighborhood along South 13th Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
The Christian Specht Building is located at 1110 Douglas Street in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. It is the only existing building with a cast-iron facade known in Nebraska today, and one of the few ever built in the state. The building was deemed an Omaha landmark in 1981, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The Melrose Apartments were built in 1916 at 602 North 33rd Street in the Gifford Park neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. The Melrose was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Prague Hotel is located at 1402 South 13th Street on the southwest corner of South 13th and William Streets in the heart of the Little Bohemia neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. Designed by Joseph Guth and built−in 1898, this building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
Vinton School was built as a fourteen-room elementary school in 1908 at 2120 Deer Park Boulevard in the Deer Park neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Designed by Omaha architect Frederick W. Clarke, Vinton School is the earliest and most elaborate example of a Tudor Revival-style school in Omaha. Designated an Omaha Landmark in June 1990, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in November 1989.
Boulevards in Omaha are part of a park and boulevard system originally designed in 1889 by Horace Cleveland. There are more than one hundred miles (160 km) of boulevards throughout the city of Omaha, Nebraska today.
Czechs in Omaha, Nebraska have made significant contributions to the political, social and cultural development of the city since the first immigrants arrived in 1868.
Lincoln Boulevard in Omaha, Nebraska was built in the early 1890s as part of the city's boulevard system under control of the Board of Park Commissioners. It runs through the Bemis Park neighborhood west-east from Mercer Boulevard to its end at North 29 Street; it then reemerges immediately north of Dodge Street, where it intersects with Turner Boulevard.
Mason School is located at 1012 South 24th Street in south Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Designed in the Richardson Romanesque style by the architectural firm of Mendelssohn, Fisher and Lawrie, the school was built in 1888 by the brick manufacturing and construction firm of Hadden, Rocheford & Gould. The school closed in the late 1970s and was converted into apartments. It was designated an Omaha Landmark in 1986 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places that same year.
The Saint Joseph Parish Complex is located at 1730 South 16th Street in South Omaha, Nebraska within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha.
The Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company, known as O&CB, was incorporated in 1886 in order to connect Omaha, Nebraska with Council Bluffs, Iowa over the Missouri River. With a sanctioned monopoly over streetcar service in the two cities, the O&CB was among the earliest major electric street railway systems in the nation, and was one of the last streetcar operators in the U.S., making its last run in 1955.
The West Farnam Apartments are located at 3817 Dewey Avenue in Midtown Omaha, Nebraska. The building was reportedly the first luxury apartment building constructed in Omaha.