The 49’r Lounge was a classic, neighborhood bar, a Midtown staple of Dundee by the time I became aware of it. Its simple, cozy sign hung out in front on Dodge for as long as I could remember. It seems to me that the old sign from the 1970’s was a covered wagon of sorts. I could be wrong about that. The 49’r certainly made an impression on me but I’m not exactly sure why. All memories seem to have been viewed from the backseat of our family car. I believe there was a light on that intersection (still is) hence the vivid memories of watching interesting people dart in and out of there. Dark, mysterious bars with colorful lights and great signs have a way of attracting attention, still…but they really seemed interesting before I was old enough to enter on my own.
Storz Beer mural on western wall shows oxen pulling a family in a wagon. “Slow Aged”. The Forty-Niner later moved one door down to the east, which was its home until 2010. Forty-Niner Bar in 1945 on north east corner of 49th and Dodge. Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive.
Here’s an even earlier one from 1938. Looking west on Dodge Street at 48th. Walgreen’s Drug is seen on the first floor of the hotel, which would later become Renier’s Pianos and Keyboards. Forty-Niner is seen on the northeast corner. Welter Upholstery Shop is just east. Welter’s would later become home to the 49’r Lounge as we knew it. Louis Sommer’s Grocery is two doors to the east. This explains that big, weird, blue building that was always next to the 49’r. 1938. Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive.
***Psssst…Addendum of May 13, 2024. Here’s a great Latenser & Sons illustration of the proposed Louis Sommer Grocery from 1925. OWH.
What the 4910 Dodge Street hotel has looked like in recent years.
My Omaha Obsession friend, Jerome Czyzewski, just shared this great photograph. Thank you! Photographer: Savage, John (1903-1989). The Durham Museum. 1964.
1964 Magnified! Stomp’s 49’r. Nice one! Jerome Czyzewski found this one. Thank you! Photographer: Savage, John (1903-1989). The Durham Museum. 1964.
Historic linen postcard from either the 1940s or early 1950s, showing that the Forty-Niner is no longer on the corner. Backside illustration on the postcard. Great matchbook illustration. All are borrowed from eBay.
I’m no photoforensics detective and therefore cannot be sure if this is a real photo or an approximation of how the early exterior looked, with enhancement from the previous postcard. Somehow doesn’t feel right but fun to look at nonetheless.
The Wake N Bake Shop. The eagerly anticipated, mysterious, covered-in-paper-with question-marks-shop that never ever materialized. Apparently when Mojo’s Coffee left this location, Wake N Bake was going to be a baked potatoes business. Maybe someone knows what period this was when all of the glorious businesses were slapped over with this horrible vertical facade? It is so lovely to see what was under those additions in the previous photos.
I wouldn’t actually experience the 49’r Lounge for myself until the 1990’s. The bar had a traditional, older layout with the bar running along the west side of the narrow room. A small stage was on the south side. Lordie, I saw a lot of bands there, I smoked many cigarettes while enjoying their shuffleboard. (My understanding is that Sullivan’s now houses this board.)
Dreamy comparison of the postcard and the photograph that I borrowed from the 49’r FB page. Camera facing north. Back entrance of the bar is in view. Notice how the mantel is a log. Would love to see this original room!
Camera facing south. This area doubled as a stage for bands. Photo borrowed from the 49’r FB page. Yes, the neon “Howard St.” sign is from the original Howard Street Tavern.
Shuffleboard and fantastic fireplace on the east wall. Photo borrowed from the 49’r FB page. I always hung in this back area. Not sure why.
The room was filled with smoke, which did not seem to bother any of us holding cigarettes. I had a number of friends who worked there throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s. In classic 90’s bar form, the 49’r was a melting pot of all kinds of Omaha weirdness. It seems that all of the White Rabbit clientele moved over here. There was a lot of hippie action, ska, indie and punk crossover, skater, djs, neighborhood originals and everything else. I’m not going to claim that this was my bar–Trey and Lallaya at Brother’s Lounge will always have my heart, (Addendum of March 2024: check out my Brothers story at: Brothers Lounge and the Case of the Vanishing Mom and Pop.) but I did have some incredible times at the 49’r and that back entrance….I don’t know why but I still think of showing my ID and paying to go in that back door. I really liked that damn back door.
49’r back door entrance. North entrance from the parking lot. Photographer, James Ducey. November of 2010. The Durham Museum.
Addendum March 2, 2024: Jerry’s Bar up in Benson now proudly houses and displays the 49’r back door sign Jerry’s Bar Memories.
In 2010 the 49’r was sold as well as all surrounding buildings/property. There was a “Save the 49’r” group made up of local residents and bar patrons but we all know how this went. CVS announced that it would design a building to fit the neighborhood aesthetic. Not quite. I am still a big, fat baby about this one. I haven’t been in that CVS or any other.
March 19, 2011. The 49’r leveled in preparation for CVS Pharmacy. Not trying to be weird but I still remember the scent of the demolition as I took these picture. Old times. For the record, I did not spray paint this sign. RIP Omaha’s 49’r Lounge.
I would love to hear your 49’r memories. Please add to the comments. Thanks, Omaha friends.
Oh, my I remember the 49er from the ’60s!
The font on the sign in the first photo is absolutely gorgeous. And they had a neon sign! Would have loved to see that one lit up. Great research and post, Miss Cassette!
I remember the 9’r well. Started going there about ’87-ish. Myself, my brother, and friend or two would go there post-Spaceball at Family Fun Center. Arch was the bartender. Discovered Chimay there. Drank it out of those special wide-mouth glasses that you’re supposed to drink Chimay with. Finagled Arch into getting a Los Lobos CD for the jukebox. I wanted their first on Slash/WB (“How Will the Wolf Survive”) but he put the La Bamba soundtrack on it. Oh, well. It probably was what what available at the time, because it was the latest release. I was in Sullivan’s this fall and yes, I’m pretty sure it’s the same shuffleboard table.
I remember the sign “from a back seat” too. As a kid, I think I remember asking my dad what was that place (“A bar…”) and if we could go in (“No.”) I always liked the covered wagon sign. It didn’t resort to the cliche “gold prospector” illustration. It was an unpretentious neighborhood joint. And pretty spacious, too. You could be social without being crowded. I think, for me, the appeal was that it had been there for years – and seemed largely unchanged for the most part (except for the Jaeger posters) – and I wanted to partake of what Omaha citizens generations ago had experienced.
Oh, and that back door was great! You could go in and survey the crowd before making an appearance. Going in the front, it seemed all eyes would be on you as you came in.
Here’s a shot I took of the sign back in 2010 – the covered wagon all but gone. The only thing left that hints to it is the shape. https://flic.kr/p/8cwBrn
“The room was filled with smoke” indeed! As a longtime smoker, The 49’r is the only place I can think of that stung my eyes with secondhand smoke.
In the ’50s the “last of the 49r’s” Tony Spomphanato”s parents owned the 49er. It did indeed have a covered wagon neon sign on the northeast corner of 49th and Dodge. It said “Spomps 49r” at the top.
I can see his mother picking him up from our class @ Benson West Elementary, in her yellow 1963 Mercury Maruder Convertible. They lived just north of us off N66st.
Tony and I were classmates @ Benson West 1956-1963.
Not sure when they sold it, as we moved from Omaha in the summer of 1964, to Houston Tx. my mothers hometown.
I lost touch with Tony and my classmates. I though he continued to run the club with his parents as he grew up.
As a long time local musician I started playing at the 9er back in the early 80’s. It was called “Cappy’s 49er” back then. Owned by a guy by the name of Jim Capalupo (sp?). Later on I believe Archie, may he rest in peace, was a part owner for a while before Mark Samuelson from the Howard ST. Tavern bought the bar. I played at the Niner with my band, the Mercury’s, through the 90’s and up until the bitter end. What a great place filled with many great people and great memories.
When my folks were still newlyweds, they would stop at the 49’r once in awhile I guess. The only reason I even knew they did is because Dad said someone he knew bartended there in the early 50’s. The mother of a friend of mine had been married prior to my buddy’s dad. Her husband (a horrible drunk I understand) staggered out of the 49’r one rainy night in 1952 when my folks were apparently there after work. He walked right out into traffic, and got his clock cleaned as a car crested that hill going west. Dad said the whole bar emptied out to gawk at what happened. My friend’s mother told him that getting clobbered by the car was the best thing that ever happened to him. She apparently was about to divorce him anyway. He ended up solving her troubles.
I dated a woman who’s uncle opened the original 49’r. His name as Tony Spompanato.
His whole family discouraged him from owning the place. They told him it was to far West and there was no parking for customers.
On the match books for the 49’r he had the words Too far out. Not enough parking . Emblazoned on them..
My wife and I used to go there on Thursday nights after class at UNO to listen to jazz musicians play. The 49r and the original Dundee Dell were just the right amount of Bohemian to make them both hip but not pretentious. Like so many places in midtown that have become updated and gentrified, these places begin to die out or lose their charm for the sake of surviving. They become like all the other places that inhabit strip malls and shopping centers. I work in midtown not far from 49th and Dodge and every time I drive by where it used to be, I get a bit sad. Brother’s lounge on Farnam has filled the hole in my heart left by the demise of the 49r, but I fear that the “improvements” to the Blackstone neighborhood will eventually claim Brother’s as a victim.
We used to go there almost every Wednesday night in the late 70s maybe even early 80s. At the time Jim C owned the bar. We would have a music jam in there with all sorts of people coming in to play music and sing. We would go out the back door and across the alley to yellow submarine for some of the best sub sandwiches. We actually played softball for them as our sponsor. Great times. Fun people.
Here is a link to a photo from he Durham photo archives of Dodge St. with “Spomp’s 49’r” in fall 1964. https://durhammuseum.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15426dc/id/26142/rec/59
Thank you so much, Jerome! This is great. I will add this photo right now. Much appreciated.