History
Downtown Omaha was the location of the settlement of the city. William D. Brown's Lone Tree Ferry landing was the site of Omaha's first development. In 2004 a map expert using GPS and old maps identified a location near Gallup University as the location of the ferry landing. Omaha Central High School, located at 124 North 20th Street, is on the site where the city's founders first met on July 4, 1854 for a celebration to found the city.
Much of Omaha's grim history happened downtown, as well. The Douglas County Courthouse was twice the location of racially motivated lynchings. The first occurred when George Smith, a local worker, was accused of raping a white woman and dragged from the jail in the courthouse to his death. The second was the mass mob murder of Willy Brown in 1919, in which Mayor Ed Smith was lynched and almost murdered as well. The event, coordinated by city boss Tom Dennison, was in retaliation of Smith's reform administration. Dennison operated a private bank at 1409 Douglas Street, bankrolling a number of illegal operations throughout the city. He was likely in control of the city's Sporting District, a downtown neighborhood where debauchery of all sorts took place.
Today the highlight of downtown's social scene, the Old Market was once a warehouse district on par with the Jobbers Canyon. Torn down in 1989, Jobbers Canyon was a large area of warehouses in which much of Omaha's industrial wealth was made. Other historical areas downtown included Chinatown, the Burnt District and the Sporting District. The latter two areas were locations for much of the crime in Omaha in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Read more about this topic: Downtown Omaha
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)