A History of the Minne Lusa Historic District in North Omaha (2024)

With increasingly sophisticated jobs, the fast usage of cars and other motor vehicles, and loose leadership letting the wealthy get rich, modern Omaha began emerging in the 1910s. One of the main elements were suburban developments, and the largest of them was developed by a real estate man named Charles Martin. This is a history of the Minne Lusa Historic District in North Omaha.

The Cornfield

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Before it became the Minne Lusa neighborhood, this area was part of the Parker Farm, a 600-acre collection of land amassed by pioneer banker James Parker (1824-1892). One of the original owners of the Bank of Florence, Parker kept a farm across all of the land including Minne Lusa, Florence Field and beyond for several decades. In the 1910s, he sold the property forming the Minne Lusa neighborhood to a real estate developer named Charles Wood Martin (1878-1955).

“When we bought the land that is now Minne Lusa it was a big cornfield of 128 acres. Endowed by nature with beautiful rolling contour, it needed but the magic wand of man to turn it in a few days into a district of contented home owners.”
—Charles Martin, developer of the Minne Lusa neighborhood

In 1893, nationally renowned landscape architect H.W.W. Cleveland (1800-1914) designed a citywide boulevard and park system for the City of Omaha. The cherry on his vision was called “Omaha’s Most Beautiful Mile,” which was a tree-lined boulevard packed with fancy homes; a smooth, winding roadway; and gorgeous flowerbeds along its mile-plus length. Its subdivision, called Norwood, was packed with river view lots for large and medium sized houses. Today, this is part of the section of Florence Boulevard between Storz Expressway and ReadStreet.

In 1880, the Florence Water Works were completed immediately west of the town of Florence. Nine years later, the American Water Company built the Minne Lusa Pumping Station at the Water Works, and sold the City of Omaha private water that was purified there. The station’s owners said the words they made up, “minne lusa,” supposedly meant clear water in the Sioux language. In reality, the name was a hyperforeignism. A hyperforeignism is a type of qualitative hypercorrection that makes speakers mis-say loanword, and then use it for purposes it was never intended. In this case, the name of the neighborhood was probably taken from the neighboring pumping station or from the creek running through the neighborhood. The creek, which was known colloquially as Manuel Lisa Creek, was named after the Spaniard fur trapper who had a small fort to the north a century before the neighborhood was built. There were other businesses in the neighborhood with the name, too, including the Minne Lusa Lumber Company, which opened circa 1900.

Omaha’s Most Beautiful Mile led to the undeveloped Parker Farm for 25 years. The crown of the ride was originally Miller Park, featuring rolling hills and a soft creek* flowing through the middle of it. When Parker put up the land north of it for sale, Charles Martin snatched it up.

Fancy Name, Better Land

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Charles Martin bought the land comprising Minne Lusa in 1915. That was than 35 years after the Florence Water Works were opened; 25 years after the Miller Park was created; more than 20 years after Florence Boulevard was finished; and two years before the City of Florence to the north was annexed into the City of Omaha.

Banker Parker’s son, Fred Parker (1854-1902), kept a studio west of present-day North 30th and Redick Streets at the Parker Estate. After Frederick and the other heirs got a hold of the Parker Estate, for a long time they kept sowing his acres with tight rows of corn. In 1891, they sold a large chunk of the estate to Dr. George L. Miller. Part of that became the Miller Park and the Miller Park neighborhood. Later another chunk was sold to a man who helped develop the Norwood subdivision mentioned earlier, as well as the Belle Isle subdivision in the Miller Park neighborhood. His name was Charles Martin.

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In 1907,the Royal Amusem*nt Company developed plans for 40-acres of today’s Minne Lusa neighborhood. Royal paid $65,000 to an architect named J. B. Mason to design six buildings, including a pavilion, a 2-story dance hall, two dining halls, a boat house, club house and a roller rink. The amusem*nt park never came to exist though, and I can’t find any evidence any work was ever done on it.

The Biggest Subdivision in Omaha

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When it was built, Minne Lusa was the biggest subdivision in Omaha to date.

Located in the northern end of present-day North Omaha, present-day Minne Lusa is bounded byNorth 24th Street to North 30th Street; Craig Street to Redick Avenue. When he built it, Martin bragged about the subdivision having “six miles of water mains, 47 fire hydrants, 12 miles of sidewalks, an ornamental lighting system, 1700 shade trees, and last but not least, a clubhouse.”

As World War I was starting, a local developer named Charles Martin made plans to develop that cornfield. It was one of the last great uncompleted spaces between the Miller Park neighborhood and Florence, and between 1915 and 1926, Martin finished his vision. Different from all of his peers, Martin did not plan a small town like Benson, Dundee or Florence. Instead, he built the largest subdivision in Omaha’s history to that point. Centered on the lulling Minne Lusa Boulevard, the Minne Lusa neighborhood supported a dozen east / west streets, too, along with three north / south roadways.

However, Martin didn’t want to focus everything on a business district, but instead, just homes. Adding just a few amenities to the neighborhood, Minne Lusa became a unique contribution to the City of Omaha’s growth. Some of those amenities included the park-like Minne Lusa Boulevard and the exclusive Prettiest Mile Club. Businesses and churches accumulated around Minne Lusa.

Martin choose the area carefully. When he started, streetcars roamed from Dodge Street to Florence along North 30th Street, and from downtown Omaha almost to ReadStreet along North 24th Street. A streetcar began running from Fort Omaha to Florence in 1894, and Martin knew to cash in on that.

He was designing for Omaha’s growing middle class population. When he began in 1916, a lot of people started buying his homes: accountants, bookkeepers, buyers, clerks, comptrollers, contractors, dentists, department Managers, engineers, foremen, lawyers, managers, mechanics, small business owners, physicians, postal clerks, salesmen, secretaries, stenographers, teachers, travel agents and company vice presidents. They generally didn’t own cars, rode the streetcars, and shopped very locally.

However, within a decade, although the same types of people were still buying the homes, they were driving their own cars and needed garages. Almost every home in the neighborhood ended up with a garage.

Homes

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The homes in Minne Lusa were supposed to be affordable and varied. Charles Martin wanted his neighborhood to focus on the latest and most popular architectural style though, which was the Craftsman style that was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. This approach to designing homes had several features, including:

Well-designed homes
Wide front porches
Low-pitched, gabled roofs
Pointed window arches
Tapered columns
Partially paned doors
Multi-paned windows
Earthtone paint jobs
Single dormers
Exposed rafter tails and beams under deep roof eaves
Knee braces
Brick fireplaces and wooden fittings
Stone and tiles
Asymmetrical composition

Seeking am architect who could manifest his vision, Martin hired young Omaha architect Everett S. Dodds. Dodds’ designs for Minne Lusa were particularly important because of their simplicity and adaptability. Dodd created a Craftsman-style home design catalogue that could be used for the entire development with several home styles repeating through a number of variations that made each one look unique. Unlike other subdivisions built in the same time period, Martin didn’t require brick exteriors. Instead, he wanted a variety of surfaces covering his neighborhood, including stucco and wood. Keeping with the Craftsman tradition, a lot of wood was used to build Minne Lusa. Other housing styles throughout the Minne Lusa neighborhood include theColonial Revival, Neo-Classical, Tudor Revival, and Ranch styles, with two Prairie style homes, too. One of the finest and earliest homes in Minne Lusa was designed by Charles Martin himself, and is located at the intersection of Mary and Minne Lusa Boulevard.

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800 lots were sold on 30 blocks throughout Minne Lusa. Martin was so successful with this subdivision that he took on the development of 211 acres north and west of North 30th Street that formerly belonged to the Army at Fort Omaha. It was called Florence Field. The Florence Field subdivision designed by Martin had 1,100 lots and was intended for a more exclusive homeowner.

Places in the Neighborhood

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When the Minne Lusa neighborhood was established, there were many parts and places within and around it. These include the homes featured above; following is information on churches, a club, and other places. Here are details about several of them.

Minne Lusa Boulevard

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The City of Omaha’s beautiful boulevard system, designed in 1892, was designed to supplement the city’s parks by acting as a ribbon that ties them all together. Upon seeing the city complete the Belvedere Boulevard at the southwest corner of Miller Park, Charles Martin had a vision for his new neighborhood.

He saw two meandering avenues lining either side of the Minne Lusa Creek that weaved its way in a gentle valley between the hills Martin bought for his neighborhood. He laid concrete curbs and streets immediately, channeling the creek through a sewer and covering it with trees on a grass-covered median, and planting soft glowing streetlights the entire length of the strip. The lots lining the Minne Lusa Boulevard were designated for larger houses and cost more to buy.

Martin originally wanted to join his boulevard with North 28th Street in Florence, which was supposed to be made into a boulevard, too. However, when that didn’t happen, Charles Martin designed Martin Avenue to connect to the Fontenelle Boulevard in the far western end of his Florence Field subdivision. This completed a wonderful loop that tied together his neighborhoods into the lifeblood of citywide traffic via the boulevard system.

Businesses

The Minne Lusa Theatre was at 6714 North 30th Street from 1929 to 1958. This photo is circa 1930s. Pic courtesy of the Durham Museum.

This is the Colfax Garage at North 30th and Redick Avenue.

The Safeway Store was at North 30th and Redick from the 1920s through the 40s, when it became Minne Lusa Hardware. Today its Four Aces Pawn Shop.

This is the North Side Drug Store, which became Dall Drugs.

YMCA

The North Omaha YMCA opened at 6330 North 30th Street in 1946. The original building was a repurposed storefront. In 1958, it was demolished and replaced with another building, which in turn was demolished in 2011 after the YMCA moved out in the 1990s and opened a different facility on Ames Avenue.

Churches

Several churches were built along North 30th Street near Minne Lusa. They included Miller Park Presbyterian, Trinity Lutheran, Blessed Sacrament Catholic, and Parkside Baptist. Mount Olive Lutheran eventually built on the northern edge of Minne Lusa.

Other Places…

Minne Lusa Creek
Minne Lusa Pumping Station
Minne Lusa Theatre
Minne Lusa School
Viking Ship / Birchwood Club / Prettiest Mile Club
Miller Park
Florence Boulevard
Florence neighborhood
Florence Field neighborhood
Miller Park neighborhood
Architect Everett Dodds

Challenges and Opportunities

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Since its heydays, the Minne Lusa neighborhood has weathered many assaults from many angles.

In the 1970s, the City of Omaha seriously considered running the North Freeway straight through the neighborhood in order to have a connector directly from downtown Omaha to I-680. However, concerned neighbors and community organizations successfully fended off this attack, and the highway ended south of the Miller Park neighborhood.

The Birchwood Club transferred ownership in the 1930s, and endured a poorly executed remodel that stripped it of its historical beauty in the 1960s. The warm, earthy stucco on the outside of the building was replaced with a tacky industrial-type siding and cheap-looking brick, while almost every element in the interior was demolished and rebuilt.

It was sold again in the early 1980s and renamed the Viking Ship. The ballroom was repurposed as a gymnastics facility and the bowling alley was ripped out and replaced with a workout gym and boxing facility. My brother and I boxed there with Kenny when we were young.

The insidious phenomenon of white flight has reared its head throughout North Omaha’s history. Apparently, many middle class white people do not want to live by African Americans. Once thought to be a problem of the last century, student bodies in local schools and homeownership trends show that it is still a relevant factor in home buying in Omaha. Coupled with a generation of aging homeowners looking to move away or simply dying, white flight took a swipe at Minne Lusa.

In the 1990s, home ownership within the neighborhood took a hit as landlords began buying up the beautiful houses in the area that were undervalued by banks, the City of Omaha and Douglas County. The outcome of this behavior led to the degradation of the neighborhood as absentee landlords and under-capable renters lowered the morale of the neighborhood. Despite the value of being well-connected to the rest of the city through the surrounding highways, homebuyers saw Minne Lusa as undesirable and refused to buy homes there. At the same time, the ratio of African Americans to white people living in Minne Lusa raised higher, too.

Fortunately, determination and community building are showing us that mixed race, mixed income neighborhoods in Omaha can survive and thrive. Today, the Minne Lusa neighborhood is a prime demonstration of that reality.

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In the early part of the 2010s, a movement within the neighborhood led to a resurgence in community building and positive growth. Between the emergence of new leadership in the Minne Lusa / Miller Park Neighborhood Association and the establishment of the Minne Lusa House, a lot of momentum has been borne of this neighborhood.

For a decade, the Minne Lusa House at 2737 Mary Street acted as like neighborhood center offering social gatherings, community meetings and history presentations among other activities. The women who launched it, Sharon Olson and Beth Richards, were local homeowners with a vision. Their actions sparked inspirations citywide, and today their actions are respected, as is the memory of the iconic Minne Lusa House.

Soon afterwards, a group of community members worked together and rallied local resources in support of placing the neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Places. They were successful, and in 2014 they successfully secured a federal designation as the Minne Lusa Residential Historic District.

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Additionally, the Minne Lusa Boulevard is included separately on the National Register of Historic Places in a listing for the Omaha Parks and Boulevard System. One of the homes in Minne Lusa, the Harry B. Neef House, is also listed separately on the National Register, too, because of its unique construction in the city.

The neighborhood continues its rebound today. According to their blog, home values are rebounding right now and property ownership is reflecting a larger vision. Neighbors are taking care of their neighborhood again, and Minne Lusa is growing. Here’s to a bright, bold future for my friends in North Omaha’s Minne Lusa neighborhood!

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Minne Lusa,N. 24thSt. to 30th Street; Craig St.to Redick Avenue
North 24th Street
Minne Lusa Pumping Station at the Florence Water Works, Grebe St. andJohn J. Pershing Drive
Former Miller Park Grocery, North 24th and Redick Avenue
Trinity Lutheran Church, North 30th and Redick Avenue
Viking Ship (aka Prettiest Mile Club and Birchwood Club), 2582 Redick Avenue
Minne Lusa Boulevard, Redick Avenue to J.J. Pershing Drive
Site of the Minne Lusa Creek, Redick Avenue to Mary Street
Site of the North Miller Park Drive Bridge, north end of the Miller Park pond
Miller Park Pavilion, 2707 Redick Ave
Site of the Miller Park YMCA
Mandela Elementary School