Before you even attempt to make sense of this follow up, please take some time to read Mysteries of Omaha: 4025 Izard Street, making sure that you are caught up on our current local Omaha Mystery.
(Above Photo and the best illustration taken from the November 11, 1928, Omaha World Herald article entitled, He Has a Castle in His Back Yard.) Notice Asa on the castle steps, in a bow tie and what looks to be a corsage.
For most of us Building and Large, Gorgeous House Obsessives, the dream of walking into a great property or to even hear about people who have lived in a fantastic home is just beyond exciting. It really gets the wheels turning. Yes, we’ve called realtors and asked for showings of places we knew were out of our price range. We are riveted by the older parts of town and become easily engrossed in a good neon sign. We’ve gone to open houses “just to see” what we have long imagined. We love to watch for older houses as they go up for sale online in hopes of viewing a whole cache of breathtaking photos. Intricate parquetry? 1930’s inlaid, puzzle-pieced linoleum kitchen floor complete with border? Yes, Miss Cassette longs to see if the dining room plate rail, the woodwork and 1920’s bathroom is still intact. Oh, to listen to one’s feet click along an extended second floor hallway, passing by many wondrous, wooden doors with transom windows left slightly ajar, to dream about the families who have walked those same oak slats, to call down the metal-lined laundry chute to a loved one floors below.
Maybe that’s part of the reason the 4025 Izard Street house, its castle and all of the fabulous people who lived there, the mystique, and the history have collectively swept us off our feet. There is so much alive there, so much of what we want life to be about. Better and richer than most of what is offered us in today’s world. An inspirational figure, really. 4025 Izard Street has always been a bit aloof and now we know why. She has quite the history and impeccable taste to boot.
It’s remarkable, then that we should all meet in this way and agree upon 4025 Izard out of aspirational longing. Or maybe, for some, it is a diversion from this political season. Either way, we are taken with her. Some of you have wanted to know more, which I, a fellow obsessive understand. I have received emails inquiring about Donnabelle Fletcher. I’ve had some readers asking to be able to view the Omaha World Herald article about the castle. I’ve had some 4025 Izard carriage house renters and neighbors, past and present, wanting to bear their mysterious stories. That last detail may not surprise readers, given the hovering, hopeful desire many of us have to make these sorts of connections between an eclectic medical doctor and his fairytale, crystal encrusted castle park. I will give you a few of the goods right now and hopefully gather more intel for a later addition.
The Full Newspaper Article
First, let me share with you a better, bigger scan of the original article entitled He Has a Castle in His Back Yard, from the Omaha World Herald, November 11, 1928. I just love this story. It is broken into three parts, meant to be read left to right, each part separately.
More on Donnabelle Fletcher
In subsequent decades, Donnabelle would go on to attend Central High School and later UNL. From childhood she had been very active in Job’s Daughters, Bethel 13. (There is an article referring to this group in the first part of this Mystery, regarding the Castle Carnival.) Job’s Daughters, a Masonic youth organization for young women between the ages of 10 and 20 years old, focused on teaching young women leadership, and was actually found in Omaha in 1920. This organization is still in existence today. Later Donnabelle finished up her degree at Creighton University where she graduated with a major in chemistry. In this photo from the 1937-1938 school year, Donnabelle, far left, is seen having fun with some fellow co-eds.
For those of you who love vintage clothing, the 30’s and 40’s are Miss Cassette’s absolute favorite time period for shoes and clothes.
At Creighton, Donnabelle met and became engaged to Jack Witte Croft. Jack was also in the science department. He served in the military as a first lieutenant. This wedding announcement, from August 25, 1940, alludes to Donnabelle and Jack living in Chicago, apparently working “with chemical laboratories.” As both sets of families still lived in Omaha, they returned to town to be married on September 1, 1940.
By October 18, 1942, the World Herald included Jack Croft in their Promoted section, announcing that he would advance to captain at Fort Knox, Kentucky. We also learn that the Jack Croft’s family home was at 3506 Harney Street. There used to be a string of large single family homes along this stretch of Harney. I believe 3506 is where that huge mammoth of an apartment complex is going in on the south side of Mutual of Omaha. Has anyone else ogled the sheer size of this new battleship?
At some point Donnabelle and Jack moved to Palm Springs, California. Flossie Fletcher, Donnabelle’s mother moved out to live with her daughter in the late 50’s after Dr. Fletcher died in Omaha. Flossie died in Palm Springs in 1986. I am not sure exactly when Donnabelle passed away. I imagine she was a very strong, inspiring woman–to have gone to college in the 30’s and to have worked in the field of chemistry. Her parents were trailblazers, as well. I like to dream that Dr. Fletcher had Donnabelle helping in his research, assisting in his lab with new D-Flo and Urego products. She would be 98 years old now, if she was still alive. Jack would be 100. Their grandchildren and great grandchildren now live in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Iowa. Maybe at some point we will hear from relatives of the Fletcher’s or Croft’s.
A Few 4025 Izard Street Stories
I have to say that I was truly delighted by the amount of private emails I received on this article. I am still waiting to hear back on a few of the stories regarding mysterious and odd happenings and vibrational energy that I inquired more about. One reader lived nearby in the mid 70’s. She was fortunate enough to get a tour of 4025. “At the time, they said the sanitarium had been for tuberculosis patients (that may have been a short period in its history) and there were still very narrow patient beds on the third floor.” I wonder if they are still there? Can you imagine? Many neighborhood children, through all different decades had a lot of fun growing up around the castle. One reader who lived on the block from 1949-1997, wrote in that he particularly remembered “the Castle’s basement was scary to us as kids and the 1st floor fireplace was beautiful.” I was pleased to read that everyone who knows or had contact with the current owners in the past spoke very highly of them.
**Addendum of July 8, 2017**
From reader “Waldo” Leigh Wilson: “79 years ago today, I made my appearance on this earth at yes, Park Hospital on Izard Street at the hand of Dr. Asa Fletcher. My mom was Charlotte Wilson, a first-grade teacher. Got to wondering about the place and found your extensive and wonderful history. Amazing work. I was an off and on patient until Dr. Fletcher died. I believe my dad, Waldo Wilson, a dandy tenor, sang at his funeral. I also was a non-fan of Urego and some kind of powder, both alleged to keep me healthy. Mainly, I remember the wonderful house and the castle and the garden … great place to play and hide out. Playing in the doc’s back garden and the castle undoubtedly engendered in me a sense of wonder and imagination… which serve me throughout my long career in television news and documentaries as a cameraman and writer. First four years at KMTV, I’m now retired and live in northern Thailand. Oh…my high school job (Tech…) was at the old Evans Ice Cream store on Center at, I believe, 36th street.? I made a lot of ice cream there and waited on a lot of cars… great memory…”
Thank you for reading my blog. I welcome your comments and encourage you to discuss amongst yourselves in comments. To enable comments, please click on the header title. If you would like to email me privately, please do so at myomahaobsession@yahoo.com. I treasure your stories. Please feel free to share this with others whom you think would be interested.
© Miss Cassette and myomahaobsession, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Miss Cassette and myomahaobsession with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
I had to go look at this place for myself and take a few photos. Gorgeous! https://flic.kr/p/GWaQCL
The castle is mostly hidden now by the fence and appears to be in need of a little repair. https://flic.kr/p/G4L6dn
Thank you. I will have to check these out when I have access to a computer.
These two stories on Izard street are very interesting thank you for your work in research l love history on old houses thank you a lot
Thank you, Joy! I really appreciate that. This was one of my favorite investigations. I am not sure if you follow us on Facebook but I had posted this just this fall about the owner of this home having passed away. She was a lovely woman.
Hi there,
Donnabelle Croft was my Mother in Law. She passed away on Christmas Day, 1999. She would tell us fascinating stories about the house and the boarders her parents would take in. I don’t recall anything about a sea monster. I was quite excited to show Jack and Donnabelle’s grandchildren pictures of them as young people. We didn’t have any. Thank you for this article.
How amazing! You’ll have to write down some of her stories for her grandkids!
I am the current owner of this home, and I lived there from infancy until college, with some summers thereafter. It was everything you might imagine. I grew up climbing the trees, playing in the castle (which was crumbling inside by the 90s), walking the stepping stone path – sometimes trying to jump on just the blue tiles or the pink crystals), or perching on the giant stones and pretending I was a mermaid as the trees waved in the sunlight making a shady effect almost like you’re under water. My parents, Douglas L. and Nancy C. (Sutton) Taylor, lovingly restored this property since they purchased it in the 1970s. My mother knocked on the front door when it belonged to Mrs. Bryan Wilson and told her that she would buy the house whenever she was ready to sell it – and eventually it happened! My parents wallpapered every room at least once (and preserved their loving marriage in the process by allowing only one fight per wall – anyone who has wallpapered with a spouse will understand). There are secret messages underneath that wallpaper from the family as they restored each room. The home over time was filled with Victorian antiques that caught their eye, which seemed as though they were made for the beautiful Queen Anne home herself. There were still a few items left behind by the Fletchers, including a box top of Urego, a few pamphlets, and old test tubes and beakers wrapped in 1920s newspaper. The servants stairs remain, but are used as storage now. There are still an inordinate number of bathtubs in the attic that have likely been there since it was Park Hospital. It was a dream home for an imaginative little girl, and I wish Donnabelle Fletcher was still alive so I could speak of it with her! As an adult now, whose parents are recently passed, it is also a dream come true to read this story of her childhood home. I don’t know what it was like as a hospital, but my mother always told me it was a psychiatry hospital and that Dr. Fletcher specialized in electric shock therapy; interestingly, I am now a psychiatrist! Though I don’t specialize in ECT, I have done it (for a stigma-busting moment – it’s not like it is in the movies, it can be an underutilized, and life saving treatment, and far more gentle than you might imagine!). The house surely shapes those who live within, and vice versa. It is like an emanation of my parents now. These old homes reflect the stories of the people who lived within them, like chapters in a book, and you, Mrs. Cassette, deserve accolades and hugs and much more for unearthing these histories, tellings these stories, and in that way, setting the stage for their future. Thank you – and thank you to all who have commented. with your stories!