One of the many pastimes encouraged by Father and Mother of Miss Cassette during my childhood was the delicious habit of reading in bed, just before lights out. Father of Miss Cassette was particularly devoted to the practice and could often be found cloistered away with a book on a weekend afternoon or in the evening, an arrangement understood and respected by the entire household. Reading was not regarded as an indulgence so much as a necessity, although I suppose it was rather wonderfully both. In other families, the great collective enthusiasm might have been football, arm wrestling, or gardening. In ours, each member quietly disappeared into a private world, following the printed page wherever it might lead. It made for a very peaceful household, disturbed only by the occasional turning of a page or a distant sneeze. To this day, reading in bed remains one of my greatest pleasures, although I regret to report that the bedside lamp seems to go out earlier and earlier.

 

I can still summon with remarkable clarity the imaginary places I visited in those childhood books. Their illustrations were often as important to me as the stories themselves, and the settings were generally nothing like our comfortable Benson home. This was, of course, precisely their attraction. There were castles and manor houses, grand European estates, mysterious gardens, and old houses filled with staircases leading to goodness knows where. Give me a hidden passage, a servants’ staircase, or a locked room at the end of a corridor, and I was perfectly content. I was especially susceptible to the suggestion that a house might be haunted. Indeed, I rather preferred that possibility. What good was a magnificent old house if there was not at least one peculiar noise coming from the upper floor?

 

But there was something particularly irresistible about a fairytale cottage, tucked away in the woods and looking as though it had grown there by some ancient enchantment. One of my most enduring childhood memories is of Snow White approaching the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage deep in the forest. That marvelous original illustration has never quite left me. I can see the little house even now, with its improbable rooflines and welcoming windows, promising warmth, shelter, and perhaps something extraordinary within. Of course, the cottages of fairytales were not always quite as innocent as they appeared. Sometimes the prettiest little house concealed the strangest inhabitants, and one could never be entirely certain what might be waiting on the other side of the door.

 

 

 

It is not often that we encounter a whimsical country cottage in Omaha. I mean the sort of house in which a deer, a gnome, and a gentleman with a genteel past might all feel equally at ease. We have always been rather more hard-nosed than that. It has seemed to me that our shared Omaha practicality, being only a generation or two removed from the farm, if not straight from the farm itself, has discouraged the building of those dreamy, eccentric little abodes one encounters in fairytales. Frivolity! What would the neighbors think? Or perhaps it is our weather, which some have rather unkindly described as uninhabitable. The weather is forever on our minds, and houses in these parts have generally been expected to be as sensible, sturdy, and down-to-earth as their owners. A fanciful roofline is all very well until the first Nebraska blizzard comes calling.

 

 

One of my favorite signs in Omaha. Recently they cut down the tree that had grown through the sign, leaving a lovely branch reminder. I hope they never try to create silly entrance gates to old Rockbrook. This sign and the branch says it all. Understated.

 

Imagine my surprise, years ago, while tarrying about the Rockbrook neighborhood on what I freely admit was a Stalker Mission. I was hunting for something decidedly Mid-Century Brady Bunch when a few extra turns brought me face-to-face with a glorious French Fairytale Cottage at 2417 South 105th Avenue. I was astonished. Surely this enchanting little country house belonged to the 1920s or 1930s, but what was she doing so far west? I had foolishly supposed Rockbrook possessed no houses of such vintage. Here, before my very eyes, stood the princess cottage of my childhood dreams, complete with sturdy walls and colorful windowpanes. I could instantly imagine myself curled up inside with a cup of tea, peering from a window seat at some poor, bewildered creature standing in the street, staring at my house, mouth agape. “Good heavens,” I would think. “Another one.” Exhilarating.

 

Naturally, an investigation was unavoidable. Friends, I shall tell you how this French Fairytale Cottage came to Rockbrook, introduce the families who fell under her spell, and recount my adventures in following her trail. The mystery grew so unexpectedly that I have divided it into chapters. You may wish to clear an afternoon, find yourself a large monitor, and settle in with these very real characters. I certainly could not have imagined that this charming little cottage would eventually yield stories stranger than anything I had encountered in my childhood books. As it turned out, the house had a few peculiarities of her own, and not all of them were architectural.

 

 

 

History of Happy Hollow Country Club

 

The story begins, as I see it, with the historical move of the Happy Hollow Country Club but first a little background information. In the genesis of the club in the early 1900s, the Happy Hollow directors purchased their original site, now known as Brownell-Talbot School at 400 North Happy Hollow Boulevard, from an Old Money Omaha family, the J.N.H. Patricks. The Patrick family homes, (two large palatial affairs that I really must write about in the future) situated on eleven acres of land were referred to as the “Happy Hollow House,” no doubt because of the street name. Have I mentioned that that is one of Miss Cassette’s favorite street names in all of Omaha? It was wisely decided the name Happy Hollow should be preserved for the country club as it had so “many pleasant associations.” Agreed. By 1922 the directors were wanting to expand the club and settled on the current site of the Happy Hollow Country Club at 1701 S 105th Street. Boasting a new 27-hole golf course, the course opened in 1924 with the new, spacious clubhouse opening in 1925. The country club was surrounded by farmland with the majority of its members still living east of 72^nd Street. ***This just in! According to an Omaha World Herald article dated March of 1956, 105th Street was previously called Happy Hollow Road, running north and south. No doubt named for the big country club move. This is different than the northeast-southwest running street, Happy Hollow Boulevard which was named for the neighborhood.***

 

The clubhouse and swimming pool at the Happy Hollow Country Club. September 16, 1928. (Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive).

 

Rockbrook History

 

I surmised Happy Hollow Country Club’s move out to the country was the formal commencement, causing a Moneyed Omaha Upheaval. Building a home Out West was not regarded as an established societal move of the smart set and one might have been seen as something of a maverick for doing so. I believe once Happy Hollow pulled up stakes from Dundee and reimagined itself in Rockbrook, the money slowly followed. I do not know this for fact but the detective in me bases this off of years of obsession and the fact that it sounds about right. I was able to find a bushel of articles, ads and some photographs from this time period to back up my speculation. The articles mention the “New Rockbrook Area,” adjoining the “New Country Club,” with additional selling points of “large, beautiful lawns” and “sunken gardens.” Sunken Gardens? This was sounding quite good.

 

 

 

Here are a group of early trendsetters out touring the area of present day Rockbrook addition near 108th and West Center Road in the fall of 1918. (Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive).

 

 

 

This ad is from March 18, 1928. Drive out through Loveland, Ridgewood, West Pacific Hills and Rockbrook Sunday. If you haven’t already read it, check out my last article on this area, Mysteries of Omaha: 8120 Pacific Street, for more information about the Ridgewood Addition. I love “Salesman stationed at 90^th and Pacific streets to answer any questions.” I imagine a salesman situated in his car….just waiting. Or that he might have set up an antique camper’s folding table with a Stanley thermos of hot coffee, waiting in a suit on a windy, dirt intersection.

 

 

 

Drive out today. And this spectacular ad from June 27, 1928. “It’s a wonderful place to live, with real folks for neighbors, because real folks appreciate the beauty and desirability of…..Rockbrook.”My favorite ad of the bunch. That little storybook illustration of the Happy Hollow Country Club is so precious.

 

In A Comprehensive Program for Historic Preservation in Omaha, published by the Landmarks Heritage Preservation Commission, Rockbrook was identified as a “designated priority area for further survey” and a “potential district” of architectural and historical significance. Although the neighborhood’s houses were photographed during a survey in the 1990s, no further written study appears to have followed. This was rather a shame, for Rockbrook clearly had stories worth investigating. Most of the houses immediately surrounding our French Fairytale Cottage at 2417 South 105th Avenue date from the 1950s, with a sprinkling of later arrivals from the 1980s and even the 2000s.

 

 

Arthur F. and Mary T. Mullen Story

 

From the Douglas County Register of Deeds Office, I learned that the original plat of land was officially called Lot 2, Block 25 Mullens Addition to Rockbrook. From my previous Loveland story, I had guessed that the Mullens Addition might have been developed by someone named Mullen. I was happy to find Arthur F. and Mary T. Mullen listed as the married developers. The couple appeared to own an abundant amount of farmland. They were either farmers parceling off their land or had inherited this countryside. I wasn’t sure in the beginning. Throughout the later 1920s, I found the Mullens were mysteriously selling off acres and acres. I assumed the couple saw an opportunity with the new Happy Hollow Country Club on the block and the creation and interest in the Rockbrook Neighborhood.

 

 

Google Map view of the area. 105^th Street is the main thoroughfare meandering north and south with Center Road running perpendicular along the bottom of the map. Happy Hollow is bordered by 105^th Street and Big Papillion Creek on the east. Please note 105^th Avenue and just beyond you can see a Mullen Road. Mr. Cassette introduced me, early in our dating, to 105^th Street, one of his favorite cut- throughs to West Center Road; a beautiful winding drive his family had used since childhood.

 

 

A detail of a page, from the multiple pages the Douglas County Deeds office chronicles–each document showing the many phases of the Mullens real estate sales over a period of decades.

 

I must warn you. This all gets a bit extensive. I was just really taken by the Mullen Clan and believe you will be too. Must have been the Irishman in me to get swept away.

 

 

I began to do some digging into the Mullen name. From a newspaper article of February 21, 1888, I discovered that Louden Mullen had been a leading real estate dealer of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mr. Mullen laid out the “Mullen’s Addition” as well as Central subdivision and other additions to the city. He then left Council Bluffs in the 1850s only to return once in 1888, hence the news coverage. He had large real estate interests in Colorado and was also invested in coalmines in the Gunnison regions. Was he related to Arthur F. Mullen?

 

The first clues I picked up about Arthur F. Mullen were from a newspaper article of May 2, 1925 entitled, “Mullen and Morrissey Visit the White House.” Mullen, of Omaha and Chief Justice A. M. Morrissey of the Supreme Court of Nebraska were in Washington, D.C. attending a two-day conference of the American Law Institute. “The Nebraskans were present at the informal reception given at the White House to visiting jurists and lawyers and their wives by President and Mrs. Coolidge later Friday afternoon.” I began to piece together that Arthur F. Mullen, aside from owning a good amount of West Omaha land, must have been a distinguished person in American law. I would later learn that he was long considered the “Iron Duke” of Nebraska Democratic politics and a well known national power in the 1930s.

 

 

Arthur F. Mullen as a young fellow. Five men, including William Jennings Bryan (2nd from left), Arthur Mullen (center), and Edgar Howard (2nd from right), wearing suits and standing in a row. They are in New York, following W. J. Bryan’s tour of the world. 1906. (Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive). For quite a read about another Omaha family that was close to William Jennings Bryan see my article on Mysteries of Omaha: 3825 South 25th Street.

 

 

The Omaha City Directory of 1928.

 

 

The City Directory led me to the 1928 Arthur F. Mullen residence, listed as “105^th and Center, Sta B.” From my previous story, Mysteries of Omaha: 8120 Pacific Street, I had learned that Sta B. might have been code for agricultural land. I figured that there probably weren’t specific house addresses that far out west. Mr. Mullen’s place of employment was Mullen & Morrissey, Attorneys at Law at 1330 First National Building. They were not just traveling buddies, they were business partners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The exterior of the First National Bank building, located on the corner of 16th and Farnam Streets, in Omaha, Nebraska. A building in the foreground has a sign which reads, “Sample Fur Sale, July 1.” June 4, 1927. (Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive).

 

 

Later I stumbled across an article from the summer of 1928 about a Mullen family reunion at the home of Arthur Mullen’s mother, Mrs. James Mullen. There was no mention of Louden in the long list of family names (Mullen’s other addition must have just been a coincidence), however it was intriguing to learn “Mrs. James Mullen holds the unusual distinction of having five of her children follow the profession of law. They are Arthur Mullen, Judge Mullen, John Mullen, Mrs. O’Donnell and Miss Mary Mullen, all of whom are practicing lawyers.” Like any good Irish family, Arthur also had two sisters who were nuns of the Dominican order, Sisters Mary Rosalyn and Mary Januarius. Arthur F. and Mary Mullen had a son named Januarius Arthur, commonly called Arthur, Jr. also an attorney at the First National Bank building. Arthur Jr. was their only child. He lived at his parents’ 105^th and Center Road home into his late twenties until buying a home in the Keystone Neighborhood. (One of Miss Cassette’s all-time favorite places.) He would later move to Detroit with his wife.

 

 

It is interesting to note that Arthur Mullen’s large family would commonly stay at his stately home when he and he wife were traveling. These frequent family moves in and out of the Mullen home, sometimes merely a week, were covered in the newspaper with explicit detail, similar to the Lives of the Rich and Famous. Telling of how interesting they were to average folks.

 

 

 

Arthur F. Mullen home on “One Hundred Fifth Street north of Center road.” In another article, “Pretentious residence of Democratic leader patterned after ‘Monticello.’”The home was described as situated on a “high knoll just to the west of the new Happy Hollow home on a part of a tract of one hundred acres owned by Mr. Mullen. The house was constructed of colonial brick, ornamented on either side of the front entrance by two white pillars extending to the roof. Like early Virginia mansions it was built rectangular in shape, with two wings at each end. It contained 10 rooms.” Very telling was the one hundred acre clue. Interestingly, the house had a roof garden 50 feet long. This sent me on a wild rampage into the research of rooftop gardens of the 1920s. As it turns out roof gardens, or pleasure gardens, as they were called, were a Big Thing among the posh set. More of a luxurious outdoor room than a Victory Vegetable Garden, the Waldorf Astoria, Kensington Roof Gardens, Hermes and Providence-Biltmore Hotel popularized this concept with their rooftop parties, dances, restaurants and playgrounds during this time period. The Mullens were surely in the know from their extensive traveling.

 

 

 

Simple 1920s domestic rooftop garden. This is not the Mullens’ rooftop. I am only using it to illustrate the concept.

 

 

By Dec. 6, 1928 the headlines ran: $35,000 Blaze Destroys Mullen Home. Mullen announced “He could see nothing but to build over again.”Defective wiring was to blame. Arthur Mullen, Jr., was ill and asleep in an upper room when the fire was discovered by a houseman. “He was bundled up and taken to the home of Bert Murphy on the Dodge Road.”

 

 

The Mullen family must have gone on to rebuild that very house because here is Mrs. Mullen gathered with her friends in front of her new home just two years later, in much the same style. The 6th National Eucharistic Congress in Omaha, Nebraska. Women at a luncheon at the home of Mrs. Arthur Mullen near 105th and West Center Street.  9/25/1930 (Photo courtesy of the Bostwick-Frohardt/KM3TV Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive).

 

 

I was amazed to find that Arthur Mullen had quite a colorful life in politics. He was a well known Nebraska National Democratic Committeeman. Mullen, Sr. was known for his larger than life movements, the newspaper calling his expressive hand movements “violent.” They ran a series of black and whites of Mullen’s erratic movements. To tell you the truth, I could not really see anything odd being depicted but Miss Cassette comes from a long line of lyrical hand waving Irishmen. Apparently Mullen was essential to the Roosevelt campaign, traveling some eighteen thousand miles with the candidate, considered “indispensable” by Marvin McIntyre, one of the Roosevelt “Big Three.” He would go on to be blamed for setting his son, Arthur Jr., in a position of power as legal advisor to Assistant Secretary of State Moley. Mullen was also accused of getting his sister, Mary, appointed as United States Commissioner in Omaha. Others were unjustly attributed to the Mullen family but later found out not to be related.

 

 

Arthur Mullen at a desk in July of 1938. He died at age 65, that very year, after a long illness from gastric ulcers. I found numerous articles about the throngs who attended the funeral of Arthur F.Mullen. (Photo courtesy of the John Savage Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive).

 

 

A highlight of Mullen’s career was in 1932 when he was asked as National Committeeman at the Chicago convention to speak on behalf of Roosevelt. Arthur Mullen “bludgeoned the opposition and won the nomination for Roosevelt.” It was generally assumed that he was a shoo in for position attorney general in the Roosevelt cabinet. In a very sad sentence I found, “His aggressiveness—the quality that raised him from a raw O’Neill, Neb farm boy to ‘Dear Arthur’standing with the president –turned on him.”He would refuse the President’s offer of a place on the circuit court bench, moving back into his own practice.

 

 

About six months before the Mullen house fire of 1928, Arthur and Mary sold approximately an acre of their land to Lee Brewer. The Mullens would continue to live at their estate, known only as 105^th and Center, until shortly after Arthur’s death in 1939. The very few homes in the area were also given this same address. Obviously something the postman was able to keep track of.

 

 

Ever Changing Addresses and History of Street Names

 

Probably Only Total-House-Sleuthing-History-Nerds (like me) Will Enjoy This: The Omaha City Directory had no listing for 2417 S. 105^th Avenue until 1964. Had it not been for the Deeds Office I never would have been able to track the original landowners or decades of ownership. Once I found the names from the Deeds Office, I was surprised to go back into the City Directory and find the address was listed under the individual owners’ names, often times listed vaguely as “105^th and Center” or “105^th Avenue and Rockbrook Rd.” It changed from year to year but did not have an official house address or street referencing until the 1960s. Additionally from the incredible Streets of Omaha: Their Origins and Changes, I unearthed that 105^th Avenue’s name changed from Rockbrook Road, between Rockbrook Road and West Center Road, according to the OWH in March 20, 1956. In addition West Center Road had originally been called Bancroft Street, once west of 72^nd Street. So that’s a little more confusion added to the story. Let’s move on.

 

 

The Lee and Ruth Brewer Story

 

On May 31, 1928 Arthur Mullen sold approximately an acre of his land to Lee and Ruth R. Brewer. It would appear that the original acreage has gotten smaller over time. I was able to find they had a daughter, Miss Joan. I soon discovered that in 1928 Lee Brewer was manager of Retail Credit Company Incorporated. The Retail Credit Company, Inc was housed at the 633 Electric Building. The Brewer family home, previous to their Rockbrook move, was at 2136 S. 33^rd St.

 

 

 

The Brewer family home at 2136 South 33rd Street, as it appeared in 2013. The Brewers lived here in 1928.

 

 

 

 

This was my first direct clue about the country home and oh how I savored it!  From the OWH article of July 15, 1928, “Lee Brewer, local manager of Retail Credit Company is building an English farm type home in Mullen’s Addition.” A unique studio living room? “Overlooking the sunken gardens.” Sunken Gardens? What was with these glorious sounding sunken gardens I had heard mentioned a number of times?

 

 

A search of the 1928 Omaha World-Herald turned up page after page devoted to sunken gardens. Apparently, “old-fashioned sunken gardens” were enjoying something of a revival, and naturally, I had to investigate. The very name suggested something wonderfully mysterious—a secluded garden hidden below the ordinary world, perhaps approached by a flight of ancient stone steps. Some were indeed quite dramatic, with elaborate terraces and formal plantings, while others, I discovered with mild disappointment, amounted to little more than a pleasant garden plot at the bottom of a gently sloping hill.

 

 

1928 postcard of a sunken garden. I want to encourage you to do a drive by the home. Imagine looking to the west from the front of the home and seeing similar sunken gardens. I envisioned them either in the front sloping yard or just beyond on the other side of the street.

 

 

 

A Few Words on the French Normandy, French Country, French Revival and French Eclectic Style

 

 

What the Omaha World-Herald had described as an “English farm type house” was, to my eye, a brick-and-stucco French cottage standing on the outskirts of Omaha. At 2417 South 105th Avenue, she possessed all the necessary ingredients of a storybook dwelling: steeply pitched rooflines, gabled dormers, a wood-shingle roof, and heavy timber doors adorned with wrought-iron hinges, latches, and pulls. One could easily imagine such a house tucked away in an enchanted wood, although she was perfectly situated just where she stood, well back from the road in what was then open countryside. There were tantalizing reports of imported marble tile floors, wrought-iron light fixtures, hand-carved ceiling beams, and tongue-and-groove construction, although these details remained to be verified. And then there was that welcoming little window of colorful, hand-painted glass, precisely the sort of touch that might persuade a passing child that something quite extraordinary was happening within.

 

2417 S. 105th Ave.

 

 

I began to research the origins of this type of dreamy French country house. As it turns out, the French Normandy style became popular after World War I when Americans were exposed to the French farmhouse. This romanticized version of the farmhouse began a study, later imitation melding many French styles. Featuring stone, stucco or brick, there is often thought a nod to the Tudor style by using decorative half timbering–vertical, horizontal and diagonal strips of wood.

 

 

Quaint stone details with fabulous farm house woodwork.

 

The use of half-timbering was said to imitate the old farmhouses of the Normandy countryside rather than the English Tudor style with which it is so often confused. Meanwhile, the steeply pitched roofs, high ridge lines, carved or embossed moldings, wall sconces, and handsome banisters suggested something rather grander—a French château, perhaps, reduced to a more manageable domestic scale. French Normandy and French Provincial details were frequently borrowed and combined to produce what became known as the French Eclectic or French Country style. In Rachel Carley’s The Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture, I found this useful explanation: “The picturesque French Revival incorporated stylistic features from a broad period of French architecture spanning several centuries.” The fashion enjoyed considerable popularity in other American cities and persisted well into the 1940s, although examples were comparatively rare in Omaha. Across the country, the style appeared in everything from magnificent country estates to modest suburban houses, allowing even the smallest cottage to indulge in a little aristocratic fantasy.

 

 

An example of a Normandy cottage. And why, oh why, must we put satellite dishes on everything? Forgive me. It simply slipped out. I had to say it.

 

 

By July of 1928, the Brewers had arranged for the Metropolitan Utilities District to establish service to their property. From everything I had uncovered, 2417 South 105th Avenue appeared to be among the earliest French Country cottage-style homes in Omaha. Curiously, both the Douglas County Assessor and the Omaha City Planning Department listed the house as having been built in 1934, a date that did not agree with my findings. The architect and builder remained equally elusive, and even the City Planning Department could offer no further clues. It would take a most fortunate break, much later in the investigation, before I discovered their identities. In the meantime, I found myself wondering about Mr. and Mrs. Brewer. Had they traveled to Europe? Had they fallen in love with some picturesque little cottage in the French countryside and determined to have one of their own? What, I wondered, had inspired them to build such an unusual house so far beyond the prominent neighborhoods of Omaha, out in the open country, well away from the admiring eyes of the Fashionable Set?

 

 

The home sits far back, within view, but in a secluded position from the road.

 

 

 

I began to daydream about what, precisely, was meant by this “unique studio living room.” What sort of marvelous arrangement might the Brewers have devised within their French Country cottage? While leafing through the wonderful House & Garden’s Second Book of Interiors by Richardson Wright, I came upon this sublime photograph. It is not, I hasten to explain, the Brewer home, but rather an example of how one might have decorated an American country house during this period. The atmosphere, the furnishings, the whole romantic notion of country living! Positively devotional.

 

 

From the 1931 City Directory I found indication of a new phrasing in Lee and Ruth Brewer’s address: “Rockbrook Av Rd 1.”In this year, Lee Brewer broke from Retail Credit Company Incorporated and started Lee Brewer Insurance Reports. This business was located at 100 Webster-Sunderland Building. The Webster-Sunderland Building at Sixteenth and Howard was built in 1906. Friends, tuck this bit of evidence away as this building will come up again later in the story. By 1932 Lee Brewer had moved his Insurance Reports Company to 3515 N. 24^th St.

 

 

 

3515 N. 24^th St. This intriguing property is now listed as Emporium Beauty and Barber Supplies and Velma’s Cosmetique Beauty-Nail. A business is built out in front and connected to the original home behind. I have reason to believe the Brewers surreptitiously moved into this property by 1932. Mr. Brewer would continue to run this business out of his home (behind.) By the year 1937 there was a “Real Estate Transfer from Ruth R. Brewer and husband to Albert H. Glasscock pt of lot 8, block 42 of 3515 N. 24^th St. for $4,425.”

 

A Few More Clues to Mr. Lee Brewer

 

In a 1933 meeting of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce meeting, Lee Brewer was named chairman of the retail ice cream dealers. He then represented Omaha in the National Retail Ice Cream Manufacturers’ Association. I found that Lee Brewer was owner of the Luzianne Ice Cream Company and was a native of Louisiana. In fact, he named his ice cream company after his home state.

Lee Brewer building permit from March 13, 1935 OWH. By 1935 Brewer had attained a building permit to construct a retail shop in front of his home at 3515 N 24th Street.

 

3515 North 24th Street, as it appeared in 1935. (Compare this with the photograph above.) Amazing. The new Luzianne Ice Cream Shop addition was featured in the June 16, 1935, Omaha World-Herald, which praised the “unique effects achieved in the interior decoration.” Apparently, the ice cream booths were circular, with a rather smart blue-and-silver color scheme, while the leaded-glass windows were singled out as something particularly special.

 

According to the July 17, 1937, Omaha World-Herald, Mr. Brewer was in his backyard cleaning his automobile carburetor with gasoline when a gas heater in the basement of the family home exploded. Flames shot through the windows, igniting Brewer’s gasoline-soaked arm. Mercifully, both Mr. Brewer and the house survived the dreadful incident. But I could not help wondering whether this frightening experience had something to do with the Brewers’ decision to sell the property soon afterward.

 

The Miss Minnie Pritchard Clues

 

Mysteriously C. B. McDonald, Sheriff appears on the 2417 Deed, signing over ownership to Minnie Pritchard on September 6 of 1932. The Brewers’ name was no longer found on the deed, which I thought peculiar. I was baffled by the cursive “Sh.D” found on the line, instead of the regular “W.D.” I began a separate investigation into deed coding. As was revealed, “Sh.D” stands for a Sheriff’s Deed or a document “giving ownership rights in property to a buyer at a sheriff’s sale (a sale held by a sheriff to pay a court judgment against the owner of the property). A deed given at a sheriff’s sale in fore-closure of a mortgage.” W. D., which I was more accustomed to seeing, stands for a Warranty Deed, or a deed in which “the grantor (seller) guarantees that he or she holds clear title to a piece of real estate and has a right to sell it.”

 

 

By February of 1933, the sale was complete. It would appear from the deed, Miss Minnie Pritchard bought the French cottage in a sheriff’s sale when the Brewers went into foreclosure. I was sad to think that the Brewers had built that home and obviously poured their hopes and dreams into it. What had happened with the Retail Credit Company? What had happened to the Lee Brewer Insurance Reports business? The library and the World Herald were not able to clear this up. I couldn’t be dismayed by these questions and needed to push on. The illusory name, Miss Minnie Pritchard, gave me plenty to focus on. A real storybook character name, I wanted to know more.

 

 

Traffic on Dodge Street looking east from 33rd Street. March 12, 1956. (Photo courtesy of the Robert Paskach Photography Collection at The Durham Museum Photo Archive).  In 1912 the Pritchard residence was at 3318 Dodge Street. This address no longer exists but it looks to be located where Mutual of Omaha was. Quite a few larger homes were taken down for the Mutual of Omaha project. Jonathan E. and Robert Pritchard, also known as the Pritchard Brothers, ran a loan company out of the 104 Bee Building. I was able to track down members of the family living at 3318 Dodge Street. It was revealed that Minnie’s father was named Jonathan E Pritchard, one half of the Pritchard Brothers loans. Her mother, simply listed as Mrs. J. E. Pritchard, her brother, Henry E., sister, Nannie and Minnie, herself. J. E. Pritchard was referred to in one article as“These public spirited persons,”for his involvement in the community.

 

 

 

309 South 53rd Street, photographed courtesy of the Douglas County Assessor site. An Omaha World-Herald article of December 16, 1931, provided another little clue. Miss Minnie Pritchard and Mrs. J. E. Pritchard were both listed at this address, mother and daughter having made similar contributions to a number of organizations and funds, including the Chamber of Commerce fund. I had reason to believe that J. E. Pritchard and Nannie were also residing in the house at this time, although brother Henry had apparently flown the family nest. The Pritchards, it seemed, were gradually revealing their domestic arrangements.

 

 

The Sisters Pritchard, Nanna or Nannie and Minnie must have been quite close. Neither were married but together, the sisters enjoyed positions of prominence in Omaha. I found their names linked together as they hosted many society gatherings from 1920 through the 1950s. They were member of the Women’s Division of the Chamber of Commerce, which tells me that they must have had some sort of enterprise. Did they take over their father’s business? Both sisters were members of the First Presbyterian Church.

 

 

 

I was most bemused to discover that Minnie and Nanna apparently continued to reside at the Pritchard family home at 309 South 53rd Street. In 1934, 1935, and 1936, Minnie was listed as the homeowner, while Nanna was recorded as a boarder. A boarder! In her own family home! More curious still, I could find no evidence that either woman had ever actually lived in the French Country cottage. Had they rented the charming little place to tenants? Did the sisters maintain several residences? Or had they perhaps conducted some sort of business from the cottage? The possibilities were beginning to multiply rather alarmingly. By the time of the 1940 U.S. Census, Minnie, then fifty, and Nanna, fifty-two, appeared to have exchanged domestic positions, with Nanna now identified as “head of household” at 309 South 53rd. I entertained the possibility that the sisters resembled one another and had thoroughly confused the census taker. Whatever the explanation, the Pritchard ladies were proving remarkably unwilling to surrender their secrets.

 

 

These are not the Pritchard Sisters but still a fabulous Cedric Morris painting from 1935. I stumbled upon a notice of Miss Minnie Pritchard’s death in 1971. She is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery with sister, Nanna who died in 1975.

 

For more on this story, told in a series of chapters, please look for my next installment coming soon. And for the Love of Pete, if you know any secrets about the 2417 S. 105th Avenue story line, yet revealed, please don’t spoil it for your neighbors. Ssshhh…

This story now has a follow-up. Find it at The Curious Case of the French Fairytale Cottage: Part Two.

 

I welcome your feedback and comments on this home, its history of incredible owners and the Rockbrook area. If you would like to correspond with me privately, please do so at myomahaobsession@yahoo.com. But I assure you, everyone would love to read what you have to say and it makes the conversation more fun. You can keep up with my latest investigations without even leaving your inbox, by “following” myomahaobsession. You will get sent email updates every time I have written a new story. Thank you, Omaha friends.

 

 

I hired my friend, Kelsey Wallerstedt-Gillman to capture the home. Delicate, little storybook watercolor. I just love it! Check out more of her work at https://www.instagram.com/kelseyandkelsey/

 

 

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