Deeper and deeper into late summer, the nights on our porch are filled with quiet discussion, the smoke of Mr. Cassette’s new cigar passion, tinkling of ice cubes and the large numbers of cicadas circled together in their droning chorus. This is my favorite time of year, other than fall and winter and early summer. The old houses seem very still and deserted. Their telephone wires are now down. A clunking 1940s door chime rarely clangs. Not a car goes by. Curtains are drawn. People hide in rooms and fiddle with their cell phones or organize their smart tv apps, cut into Amazon boxes left quicker than you can spit.

 

 

 

 

May of 2018.

 

 

I’ve dillydallied around 1916 South 32^nd Avenue before– a place to get lost in the dreams of the past. You might remember that I wrote about my crush in 2018: 1916 South 32nd Avenue. Very recently I was notified by a good buddy, Jimmy, that Miss 1916 South 32^nd Avenue was in the midst of a renovation and a portion of her was torn down. I rushed over and yes, my breath was stolen again, but this time I found a nakedness that was so alarming. I didn’t want to be disagreeable. It seemed the southern third of the house was cut off.

 

 

Oddly it seemed as though that southern portion was perfectly removed. Like a perfect cut. Was that the same brick exposed on the southern side?

 

 

I would circle round and round the block. If you walk one block to the west, one can see the 1916 South 32^nd Avenue property line extends all the way to 33^rd. That same friend who tipped me off to this renovation, Jimmy, had helped move the little cabin from his property at 3214 Center to 1916’s back garden. The newer owner of 1916 South 32^nd Avenue had taken the cabin off his hands years ago. The original story of the house and cabin is here: Mysteries of Omaha: 3214 Center Street.

 

 

The western boundary of the remarkable 1916 South 32nd Avenue property. View from 33rd Street.

 

 

 

 

Jimmy’s rustic cabin magnified about midway on the northern border.

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Shelley McCafferty, City Planner/Historic Preservation with the City Planning Department, I was able to borrow these great 1980 photos of 1916 South 32^ndAvenue to suss out my hunch. These photographs were taken as part of the Landmark Inc Survey Photos. These great photos gave pretty sure indication that this southern portion of the home had been a later addition.

 

 

Eastern elevation.

 

Western elevation. I saw one, possibly two additions to the home. This explained why there was seemingly matching brick on that southern exposure when they recently torn off the side of the house.

 

 

 

 

Current photograph for comparison. It looked like the house had all new windows the more I studied. I have to say it comforted me to know that what was recently removed was also an addition to the original. I understand that houses are meant to suit current needs and can take on renovation and additions now and then. I look forward to seeing where this addition goes. A large, modernist glass cube? A 1900 solarium? An Italianate addition that seamlessly matches the rest of the house?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shelley McCafferty also shared these lovely 2010 Reconnaissance Survey Photos from the city’s archives.

 

 

Past Owner

 

Believe it or not, 1916 South 32^nd Avenue was another one of my friend’s childhood homes. The large five bedroom, three and a half bath home was a busy, family and friend-filled 3,816 sqft. The city has 1916 on record as being built in 1900 but I am not sure of that. The prominence of the home, the way it is positioned far back from 32^nd Avenue, its extension all the way to 33rd Street, the fact that it faces Hanscom Park to its east, was all very seductive, architecturally speaking. We don’t often see one of this variety in these parts–they say she is of Italianate design, considered High Victorian.

 

The large living room with tall windows on the east side of the house, facing Hanscom Park. My friend, Rebecca and her buddies.

 

 

Rebecca took these images on her last day in the house in 2015.

 

 

I mentioned the 1916 property stretching from 32nd Avenue to 33rd Street–As I remember it, and later confirmed by Rebecca, this rear garden lot was lined with trees, very large trees. It was enclosed and private. Trees also lined the long drive from 33^rd.

 

Super sleuth, Janna Mattingly, contributed this photograph of the back of the house. Taken in May of 2017.

 

 

 

Rebecca’s photo of the back drive.

 

 

 

Rebecca shared that the portion of 1916 South 32nd Avenue that was recently torn down was the large kitchen, upper bedroom, laundry-utility room and back bathroom. Her sister’s bedroom was above the kitchen, which she thought had originally been a sunroom due to the windows that extended the east and southern sides of the house. One can see those bedroom-sunroom windows in the following photo.

 

 

“We lived in the kitchen like many families do.”

 

Photograph borrowed from the Douglas County Assessor site. Three entrances are viewed from the east. I believe these are possibly two separate additions, the white archways tying them all together.

 

 

Bit of History

 

 

We are not gathered here to get all miserable as we normally do. I mean, some of us very naturally wear black and black arm bands and put black mourning wreaths on our doors, but that’s just what we do in good times and in bad. Here is what I found out about 1916 South 32nd Avenue.

 

 

1916 South 32^nd Avenue is situated in the Marietta Place addition, Lot 16 of Block 0. The Marietta Place was the old Megeath home place, which is just across the street and west of Hanscom Park. This addition, owned by the Megeaths was “cut into 19 large lots.” It was marketed as “the most beautiful tract facing Hanscom Park on 32^nd between Francis and Center Streets, extending back to 33^rd.” It was said to be “covered with large oaks and other trees of ten to twenty years growth (dating the trees to the 1880s time period) making an idea home place.” By 1909, permanent walks, paving, water and sewer were put in Marietta Place.

I found the inhabitants of 1916 South 32^nd Avenue advertising for a cook and a laundress in the early 1900s. I figured this parcel had always had a number of lots included under this address when I found they were selling “a good family cow.” “Two extra lots” were also available in a 1957 sale of the house.

Meanwhile this sale of Lot 16, of which 1916 South 32nd Avenue is included in, was an exchange between Mr. Megeath and wife to William Fellows Morgan in 1909.

 

1923. OWH archives.

 

 

George W. Megeath and family had a massive home at 2137 South 33^rd Street which I believe was the original home and land of this later Marietta Place plat. 2137 South 33^rd was built in the 1800s. George Megeath was then president of the Sheridan Coal Company. His father was James G. Megeath (prominent, old school Omaha, who gave the land for Hanscom Park) and son was Edward Megeath. In 1923, Mr. George Megeath famously gave his mansion at 2137 South 33^rd Street to the Masonic Home for Children. Megeath, himself, was a high ranking Mason. As is the pattern around here, the Megeaths were headed out to West Omaha to build their new mansion. This West Omaha house is another of my passions that I continue to be haunted by. More on that, later!

 

 

 

Here it is in 1929 after the Masonic Home had taken over. Sadly when the former G. W. Megeath home on 33^rd was torn down in the fall of 1945, it was given the too late respect of being called “one of the old showplaces of Omaha.” Photographer: Bostwick, Louis (1868-1943) and Frohardt, Homer (1885-1972). Photo: The Durham Museum.