Saratoga | |
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Neighborhood | |
Nickname(s): Saratoga Springs, Sulphur Springs | |
Location in Nebraska | |
Coordinates: 41°18′N95°56′W / 41.300°N 95.933°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Nebraska |
City | Omaha |
Saratoga Springs, Nebraska Territory , or Saratoga, was a boom and bust town founded in 1856 that thrived for several years. During its short period of influence the town grew quickly, outpacing other local settlements in the area including Omaha and Florence, and briefly considered as a candidate for the Nebraska Territorial capitol. [1] Saratoga was annexed into Omaha in 1887, [2] and has been regarded a neighborhood in North Omaha since then.
Located today in the proximity of 24th Street and Saratoga Avenue in North Omaha, the town was once noted as being "three miles (4.8 km) north of downtown Omaha and two miles (3.2 km) south of Florence." In modern terms, the Saratoga townsite lay between Locust Street on the south and Fort Street on the north, between the current Carter Lake on the east and North 36th Street on the west. [3]
The town's economy, including a hotel and several bars, relied on its connection to the Saratoga Bend on the Missouri River, less than one mile (1.6 km) away. In 1856 the Nebraska Territory riverbank at Saratoga Bend was the site of regular steamboat landings, with more regular traffic than the fledgling Omaha City, three miles (4.8 km) south. The town was also founded near the site of Sulpher Spring, which because of the town became renowned for its healing powers. The site was also the grave of the daughter of Young Elk, an elder of the Omaha Tribe who advised Logan Fontenelle.[ citation needed ] One historic report identifies a sulfur spring at the "foot of Grand Avenue", which is the location of "Bluff View Park", also called "Horseshoe Bend". [4]
Erastus F. Beadle (1821–1894), an agent for New York land speculators, was the impetus for the town's creation and growth. This type of speculation relied on money from wildcat banks, which were shady investment schemes popular at the time. Beadle named the community after his own hometown of Saratoga, New York, because the mineral springs are similar to that area's Saratoga Springs. It was hoped these springs would draw many visitors to the area, and anticipating that, a large hotel (the Saratoga Springs) was built.
Within several months the town had more than 50 buildings, including several businesses and churches. In February 1857 the Nebraska Territory Legislature passed an act incorporating the first University of Nebraska at Saratoga. When that did not transpire, the university was newly incorporated in Lincoln. [5] The post office was established in September 1857. After Beadle left in late 1857, the economic "Panic of '57" set in and greatly distressed Saratoga's economy; the Post Office closed in 1858, and the town then stagnated until it was absorbed by Omaha. [6] In 1858, the Douglas County Agricultural Society was organized. It held its first fair in Saratoga. [7]
The hotel did not take off, and five years later Brownell Hall began classes in the abandoned hotel building. The Episcopal school for girls opened at the location of the Saratoga Springs Hotel. The Nebraska Territory bishop paid $3500 for 6 acres (24,000 m2) of land and the building. [8] By 1869 a new school building had been constructed at 16th & Jones in Omaha and the old hotel was abandoned. [9]
Richard Siemon was the operator of the Saratoga Brewery located at the present-day junction of North 16th Street and Commercial Avenue, the presumed location of one of the area's many artesian wells. [10] By 1863 the company was sold to Ebenezer Dallow, and eventually it became the famous Storz Brewing Company. [11]
In 1866 local citizens erected a one room schoolhouse called Saratoga School, one of the first public schools in Nebraska. [12] In 1877 the Missouri River changed course and cut-off the Saratoga Bend, creating what became known as Carter Lake (lake), ending the community's reliance on river traffic. [13] The community floundered for several years, and in 1887 it was annexed into the City of Omaha. [14]
In 1886, Omaha banker Herman Kountze platted much of the Saratoga area as a new affluent suburb of Omaha called Kountze Place. The Saratoga community was notable again in Omaha's history in 1927. That year North Omaha businessmen formed the North Omaha Activities Association in order to re-develop Saratoga School's playing field into a college football field for Omaha University's football team. At that time 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. [20]
Saratoga Avenue in North Omaha was the Main Street of the town of Saratoga. Saratoga Elementary School was incorporated into Omaha Public Schools in the late 19th century. [21] Brownell-Talbot School, once located in the heart of Saratoga, thrives today and is recognized as the oldest school in Nebraska.
Brownell Talbot College Preparatory School is an independent, co-educational, college preparatory day school located in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It serves students from preschool through grade 12.
North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the east, as defined by the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.
East Omaha is a geographically designated community located in Omaha, Nebraska. Located three miles (5 km) from downtown Omaha, East Omaha is the site of Eppley Omaha International Airport, Omaha's main airport, and Carter Lake. This area was Omaha's first annexation, joining the city in 1854. Originally separated from Omaha by the Missouri River, a large section of the area's land was dissected by a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1892. Today, 2,500 houses, a school, grocery stores and a church that made up the original town have been demolished and replaced by several government facilities, the Eppley Airfield, and more.
Carter Lake is a shallow oxbow lake in Nebraska and Iowa, located next to Omaha, and marks one of the only spots the Iowa-Nebraska border is not on the Missouri River. Soon after its formation the lake was called the East Omaha Lake, and then Lake Nakoma. The city of Carter Lake, Iowa, takes its name from the lake. The lake was formed from the Saratoga Bend in the Missouri River.
North Omaha, Nebraska has a recorded history spanning over 200 years, pre-dating the rest of Omaha, encompassing wildcat banks, ethnic enclaves, race riots and social change. North Omaha has roots back to 1812 and the founding of Fort Lisa. It includes the Mormon settlement of Cutler's Park and Winter Quarters in 1846, a lynching before the turn of the twentieth century, the thriving 24th Street community of the 1920s, the bustling development of its African-American community through the 1950s, a series of riots in the 1960s, and redevelopment in the late 20th and early 21st century.
Significant events in the history of North Omaha, Nebraska include the Pawnee, Otoe and Sioux nations; the African American community; Irish, Czech, and other European immigrants, and; several other populations. Several important settlements and towns were built in the area, as well as important social events that shaped the future of Omaha and the history of the nation. The timeline of North Omaha history extends to present, including recent controversy over schools.
The history of Omaha, Nebraska, began before the settlement of the city, with speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa staking land across the Missouri River illegally as early as the 1840s. When it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs to Omaha. A treaty with the Omaha Tribe allowed the creation of the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha City was founded on July 4, 1854. With early settlement came claim jumpers and squatters, and the formation of a vigilante law group called the Omaha Claim Club, which was one of many claim clubs across the Midwest. During this period many of the city's founding fathers received lots in Scriptown, which was made possible by the actions of the Omaha Claim Club. The club's violent actions were challenged successfully in a case ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Baker v. Morton, which led to the end of the organization.
Education in Omaha, Nebraska is provided by many private and public institutions. The first high school graduates in the Omaha area came from Brownell-Talbot School, which was founded in the town of Saratoga in 1863. The oldest school building in continuous usage is Omaha Central High School.
The neighborhoods of Omaha are a diverse collection of community areas and specific enclaves. They are spread throughout the Omaha metro area, and are all on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River.
The Near North Side of Omaha, Nebraska 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 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 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 Charles Storz House is located at 1901 Wirt Street in the Kountze Place neighborhood of North Omaha, Nebraska. The Arts and Crafts style house was designed by the Omaha architectural firm of Fisher and Lawrie and built in 1909. In 1983 it was renovated as a historic preservation project involving the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Landmarks, Inc., the City of Omaha and the Consumer Services Organization. In 1984 it was designated an Omaha Landmark.
The Kountze Place neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska is a historically significant community on the city's north end. Today the neighborhood is home to several buildings and homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located between North 16th Avenue on the east to North 30th Street on the west; Locust Street on the south to Pratt Street on the north. Kountze Place was annexed into Omaha in 1887. The neighborhood was built as a suburban middle and upper middle class enclave for doctors, lawyers, successful businessmen and other professional workers.
Scriptown was the name of the first subdivision in the history of Omaha, which at the time was located in Nebraska Territory. It was called "Scriptown" because scrip was used as payment, similar to how a company would pay employees when regular money was unavailable. Its original survey placed the location from the Missouri River to North 30th Street, Cuming to Fort Street.
Herman Kountze was a powerful and influential pioneer banker in Omaha, Nebraska, during the late 19th century. After organizing the Kountze Brothers Bank in 1857 as the second bank in Omaha, Herman and his brothers Augustus, Charles and Luther changed the charter in 1863, opening the First National Bank of Omaha that year. Kountze was involved in a number of influential ventures around Omaha, including the development of the Omaha Stockyards and the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898. Immediately after his death Kountze was regarded as one of Omaha's "old settlers". Today Kountze's First National Bank is the oldest bank west of the Mississippi River, and continues as a privately held company in its sixth generation of family ownership.
North 24th Street is a two-way street that runs south–north in the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. With the street beginning at Dodge Street, the historically significant section of the street runs from Cuming Street to Ames Avenue. A portion of North 24th near Lake Street is considered the "Main Street" of the Near North Side, and was historically referred to as "The Street of Dreams." The corridor is widely considered the heart of Omaha's African-American community.
Abbott Drive is a roadway mostly in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, but passes briefly through Carter Lake, Iowa. It is the easternmost link in Omaha's Park and Boulevard System that connects the eastern edge of Creighton University and North Downtown Omaha or NoDo to Carter Lake, Iowa, Eppley Airfield to John J Pershing Drive on the eastern end of Florence, Nebraska. Considered "Omaha's gateway", the drive includes a distinctive "string of pearls" lighting feature.
Old Gold Coast is the name of a historic district in south Omaha, Nebraska. With South 10th Street as the central artery, the area was home to neighborhoods such as Little Italy and Forest Hill. The area is referred to as "old" because it was replaced in prominence in the late 19th century when a new district usurped its importance. This area south of downtown was generally bounded by Leavenworth Street on the north, Bancroft Street on the south, the Missouri River on the east, and South 16th Street on the west.
Significant events in the history of Omaha, Nebraska, include social, political, cultural, and economic activities.