Omaha Landmarks - Landmark Preservation in Omaha

Landmark Preservation in Omaha

Omaha has sought to preserve its historic landmarks for more than 50 years. The first city report on historical sites written in 1959, and the first buildings in the city were listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings in the 1960s. The demolition of the Old Post Office in 1966, along with the Old City Hall the next year, were rallying points for preservationists in the city. Omaha developed a comprehensive plan for landmark preservation in 1980.

Some years, the demands of changing business in Downtown Omaha have overridden the desires of preservationists to maintain historic structures. In 1989, all 24 buildings of the area's "Jobbers Canyon" were demolished, representing the highest number of buildings lost at one time that were listed on the National Register of Historic Places to date. The Christian Specht Building is the only extant building with a cast-iron facade known in Nebraska today, and one of the few built in the state.

The Burlington Train Station, also a downtown historic landmark, sat empty for more than thirty years and was stripped of much of its historical grandeur. In 2006 a group of developers began renovating the building for mixed-use, which will include residential condos. Not all of the buildings lost are deemed significant; the Omaha Auditorium, designed by noted and prolific local architect John Latenser, Sr., was almost universally panned for its gaudy and half-completed construction.

In North Omaha, the historic Strehlow Terrace apartments have been renamed "Chambers Court" in honor of locally renowned Nebraska Legislator Ernie Chambers. Fort Omaha, an Indian War-era supply depot for the United States Army, has been re-purposed as a local community college.

In April 2001 the Nebraska Methodist Health System purchased the Indian Hills Theater on West Dodge Road and. In June it announced plans to demolish the theater and replace it with a parking lot. Indian Hills was the last drum-shaped, three-projector Cinerama theater in the United States. Despite grassroots formation of the Indian Hills Preservation Society, letters of support from Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh and Kirk Douglas, and the unanimous vote of the Omaha Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission finding that the theater should be declared a Landmark of the City of Omaha, in August 2001 the building was demolished.