It was several seconds before the elevator cage rumbled down to the lobby. As the operator opened the sliding door, I stepped out of the cage into the carpeted hotel corridor and looked for My Man Friday attired in a black frock coat. The gentleman snapped a match into flame and drew it toward the Chesterfield in his mouth. Immersed in thoughtful silence, I took his arm as we headed toward the front doors. He had arranged for a waiting car and soon the driver rounded toward Midtown. It was time to shadow the Walter Apartments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had received a tip on developments afoot at the incessantly hinky southeast corner of 50^th and Leavenworth back in the fall of 2023. A large, five-story apartment project was being drawn up. On the market for years, many had observed beautifully coiffed teams of real estate developers sniffing about with the tools of their trade. This urban scouting only served to draw out local peepers and eavesdroppers as 50th and Leavenworth is a visible, very congested, popular thoroughfare. Honestly, she ain’t too pretty.

 

 

 

 

Eccentric as the day is long, the self-serve Coin Laundry corner is just a portion of the fabulous curiosity that makes up the Leavenworth Puzzle. Built in 1960, according to the County Assessor, the 7,536 sqft Tidyland Coin Laundry was a mystery needing to be solved for many reasons.

 

 

 

 

That particular corner held a subtle atmosphere of burnt-out activity for as long as I could recall, although it played the role as a self-serve laundromat for decades. And it had an assemblage of odd signage to prove it. No longer in operation, fatigued and physically fading, it had the littered appearance of a vacant lot from which a carnival roadshow had just moved away. True, the massive concrete traffic barriers stationed mid-parking lot stopped the locals from their creative caddy-corner cut-through, but moreover, they performed as additional debris collectors and places for the weary to set a while. I am told it was not always this way. I had opened the case dossier back when I began all this detective business because this corner just so happened to intersect with another loadstone of my generation. You see, the now adult children of a certain of age who grew up in Dundee and Elmwood reminisce with great relish the short-lived all-night video parlor called Space City once located on this very parcel. And older neighbors still may recall a gas station anchored on that corner. Like most plots of land in Omaha, the southeast corner of 50th and Leavenworth has a long history and as you might have suspicioned by the looks of her, she has a quirky one.

 

 

 

 

 

In keeping with my All Things Leavenworth Obsession, today I offer up an investigation into the new development project at 50th and Leavenworth including a colorful back story…and some wanderings, because that’s my idea of a good snoop-about. If you would like to venture straight into the past and work your way back to us, look for the header:

The Cemetery, the Mission Camp, the Neighbors and Gridlines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Acquisition

 

In November of 2023 the Omaha World-Herald reported that an entity called 807 Acquisition LLC purchased 807 South 50^th Street from Shirley A. Rupprecht for $750,000. One will notice as we move along that address names change over time. For our purposes, it is important to note that Ms. Rupprecht’s recently sold parcel is within in Nielsen’s Addition and over time has grown to contain Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6. For those really fussy types, the legal description is: “NIELSENS ADD LOT 6 BLOCK 0 1/2 VAC ALLEY ADJ LOTS 4-5-6 & ALL LOTS 3 THRU 6 IRREG.” The Douglas County Assessor site revealed the sale occurred October 6, 2023.

 

 

2023 aerial borrowed from the Omaha City Planning site. Peach highlighted overlay denotes the 807 South 50^th Street property as it looks today. Leavenworth runs east-west and is at the top of the image. Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery is seen north of Leavenworth Street. 50th Street (runs north-south) intersects and is seen on the far left side of the photo. Please note the attached smaller portion of the building on the north side has an asphalt type roofing. The long horizontal portion of the structure was added later, extending the the south side of the parcel with a metal type roofing. The building right next door to the east, 4955 Leavenworth has been the Sandy Kay’s Salon for decades, although I believe she moved? There is a great neighborhood maze of alleys behind the 807 South 50th Street and 4955 Leavenworth properties.

 

 

 

Who are They?

 

807 Acquisition LLC formed on September 27, 2023, filing with the Secretary of State’s office. The address used for this limited liability company, interstingly, had another LLC linked to it: Parkway Development LLC. Ryan Spellman is the owner and manager of Parkway Development Company. As it turns out, My Omaha Obsession has explored a couple of Spellman and Parkway Development’s apartment projects in the past: Swivel and Centerline. Since writing the last article, Parkway have added Clove to their roster of large apartment buildings. Please review at your leisure: New Omaha: 119 North 72^nd Street.  

 

 

Centerline.

 

 

 

Clove.

 

 

Swivel.

 

To survey Parkway’s mission is to assess and digest a popular, prescribed course of city planning happening nationally—-maximum density, urban infill apartments. Link to their portfolio: ParkwayDevCo.com

 

 

 

 

 

The Plan for 50th and Leavenworth

 

The Parkway Development Company has moved through the Omaha City Planning channels since their October acquisition of 807 South 50^th Street.

 

 

 

An earlier look from November 2023. Grow Omaha reported: “Parkway Development Company, LLC, led by Ryan Spellman, plans to convert a former laundromat sitting on a 24,511 sq. ft. lot into a 5-story, mixed-use building.”

 

 

At this juncture (March of 2024) the approved plan is a single, five story, 58-unit apartment building with 44 parking spaces. The laundromat building will be cleared, not converted and it will no longer be a mixed-use building. Apartments only, no storefronts or offices on the lower level. From the Planning Board site: “The applicant anticipates construction beginning about May 1, 2024, with an estimated project completion date of about October 31, 2025.” Parkway arrived at the name of Walter Apartments. The following images are from the December application to the Board.

 

 

Walter Apartments, north elevation faces Leavenworth Street.

 

Conceptual Design. Overall Walter will look very much like the other Parkway buildings.

 

From the November 29, 2023 Project Description on the Omaha Planning Board site: “The site will be cleared and a new five story apartment building with 58 market rate units will be constructed. Amenities include bicycle storage, a private elevated courtyard, lounge area, and amenities for the residents’ pets. There will be approximately 44 on-site parking stalls located within the building. Another three parking stalls will be developed in the 50th Street right of way. The project will also provide secure bicycle storage.” 46 units will be one bedroom apartments at 763 sq ft for $1,630 a month. 12 two bedroom offer 1,043 sqft for $2,075 a month.

 

Of note: 44 on-site parking stalls located within the building with another three stalls on 50th Street is not a whole lot of parking. “Plans and materials submitted for an application to rezone the property to TOD-2-MX (Transit Oriented Development) with a PUR Planned Unit Redevelopment overlay, was recommended for approval by the Planning Board at their November meeting. There are no transportation issues noted. The project is well served by the public transit system.”

Of additional interest:  “The TIF request is for $1,938,647, which includes capitalized interest. The TIF is 12.1 percent of the total project investment. TIF will be used to offset TIF eligible costs such as acquisition, demolition, site preparation, special engineered foundations, utilities, architectural and engineering fees, and any other public improvements as required. The total estimated project costs are $16,000,000.”

 

 

 

“Subject area is shaded” from December of 2023 application. Borrowed from the Omaha City Planning Board site.

 

 

 

A Most Agreeable Sleuth or Miss Cassette’s Unsolicited Advice

 

 

I will make this brief, as I think everyone by now knows how I feel about flimsy building materials, the importance of quality and distinction in architecture,  and how I ache from the aesthetics of Big Box Apartments. I recognize that the 50th and Leavenworth laundromat lot is in poor condition and no longer of service to the community. I am not crusading for keeping it. I don’t want to hear that this new project “looks better than what is there now,” because I am asking you to see and want more. I am in touch with the need for more housing, but, more importantly, aware that there is more money to be made tearing down functional houses and building large apartment buildings in this part of town. We are told UNMC employees, UNO students and all of this big money is moving into Omaha. The city and developers typical argument is that the hybrid building method of beautyless apartment massing is filling empty or underutilized city lots (by scraping away smaller houses and buildings), consequently creating more housing and urban density. These lots being leveled are generally ugly, “not of historical relevance,” and in some cases dilapidated. So, who cares, right? In this case Omaha is supposed to be grateful and applaud that we don’t have to look at this 50^th and Leavenworth corner, the abandoned laundromat and the cast of characters who gather there. The problem, as I see it, is that we are being led to believe that there are only these two options: massive apartment building squeezed into the small lot on top of a parking garage or living with an abandoned building. It is such limited and yet grandiose thinking. A smaller apartment building could be great on that corner. Why not assess height, massing, setbacks and take in architectural features of the adjacent buildings and neighboring small houses. With respect to the nearby homes and the developer, I understand the Walter Apartments would have a greater height and mass, but there should be an attempt to blend in aesthetically and not to overwhelm. When money is the sole focus, the project must swell and somehow they typically land on the economical bland box atop a garage design.

 

 

 

Harney Place Apartments at 3327 Harney Street labels itself Old World Charm. Built “in your face” flat and just bizarre, I do give them credit for gable and dormers. Compared to their peer group boxes, employing those architectural features maybe gave them the right to claim Old World Charm.

 

 

 

 

 

Spaces at 501 Park Avenue continues to provoke depression with its tiny, sad windows. The bar is This Low. For more details, please review my earlier article: The Case of Park Avenue and the Mysterious Hospital. 

 

 

The girthy, literal, false-front apartment and townhouse boxes offer variations of exterior elaborations that seemingly hint at unique interiors and modernity. The recessed decks, the extended eaves, the inconsistent materials contrast in a joyless simulation. There is no character or merit. It is all gimmick. Am I really the only one questioning the flat roofs with the flat, cheap windows, with the flat facades of various wood veneers in this climate? (Gable rooftops should be mandatory for humanity and beauty’s sake. I am told we can no longer have elegance because of the expense.) And don’t get me started on the false sense of community through “shared space” that no one makes use of. Any adult who can afford the high rents is not interested in an AstroTurf rooftop hang-out and any students whose parents are footing the bill are inside their tiny paper-thin-walled apartment playing games in the dark under a blanket. The setbacks are minimal, built out to the street that meets people in an abrupt, harsh way. Nothing adding to life in the streets, which is the biggest lie of this whole thing. Omaha is supposedly moving to bicycles and public transportation but there is no welcome at street level of these undefined rectangles. The fact that the Walter will look like the other three Parkway apartment warehousing feats, in other parts of town, only emphasizes The Not Belonging, The Every Corner. The city is able to say there is increased housing; the developers are able to say they’ve created X many new apartments. Profit is the bottom line and these cheap buildings with high rent on a massive scale are the ticket. It will continue.

 

Now this might surprise you but the following are two boxy townhome designs in nearby Midtown neighborhoods that I do not mind. I have not seen the interiors in either case but the exteriors offer substance, intentional, functional design, and dare I say, elegance. I mean, they are still rectangles with gimmicks and flat roofs but if you can accept what they are, there was permanence and beauty in the design. They don’t look like bubblegum is holding them together. The buildings meet the street and the surrounding community with grace. And people want to live there.

 

 

Dewey Row is in the Blackstone neighborhood at 38th and Dewey. Six modern rowhouses. Interestingly developed by the same group who built the cheap and ill-fitting Elmwood Rowhaus townhomes on Leavenworth.

 

 

 

 

 

Forty9Place at 49th and Farnam in the Dundee neighborhood. Eight modern row houses. Forty9Place does have a lot going on but one can see the architectural purpose, not the fake-out. Good windows and a variety of them. Good set back. Gracious approach.

 

 

 

 

 

The Proof of the Pudding

 

 

All of that aside, my concern for this particular Walter Apartments project is safety and having a residential building of this magnitude squeezed into this very dense, highly traveled, narrow intersection without much setback. We have seen these gargantuan apartment buildings pushed out to the edges of these small lots in Midtown. I think a downsized apartment house could work here and not overwhelm the neighboring homes and the city streets. Which brings me to my second concern of infrastructure and flow.

 

 

 

Just west of Saddle Creek and Leavenworth. Holy Sepulchre Cemetery on the north side.

 

The old Omaha Steel Castings Company or the Omaha steel mill, now owned by UNMC, is taking shape.

 

 

These populated neighborhoods are already backed up with the Leavenworth at Saddle Creek project. The rebuild of the Omaha Steel Mill. And now the Omaha City Council just approved rezoning for another 4-story, 195-unit apartment building at Saddle Creek Road and Mason Street, south of Baker’s Supermarket. These three large projects will go on for at least two years. ZAG Apartments at 5110 Mayberry (see my series of articles at: Mysteries of Omaha: 5120 Mayberry Street.) is already clogging these crammed streets. As of now there are (supposedly) two people who have bought into the Elmwood Townhomes on 54th and Leavenworth (Like Slow Death) or that would be another cramp in the artery. My third issue is an old gripe. The more we tear down functional housing in old neighborhoods for these high rent Big Boxers, the more we will continue to tear down, because, “See–we’ve already done it over here.” The precedent has been set and that is what we are suffering with now. It will only get worse unless we find ambition and inspiration again.

 

 

For more on this neighborhood and city planning, check out my article: The Question of South 50^th Street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cemetery, the Mission Camp, the Neighbors and Gridlines

 

An essential element of this whole area is the Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery, located across the street to the north of the laundromat at 4912 Leavenworth Street. It was opened on June 1, 1873.  According the American Guide Series Omaha: A Guide to the City and Environs compiled by the WPA in the 1940s, “The site of St. Mary’s Cemetery, northeast corner of 24th and Howard Streets(…) was the first Catholic burial ground it Omaha. the cemetery was abandoned in 1873, due to the encroachment of the city and the bodies were re-interred in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.”

 

2018 snowstorm viewed from the laundromat parking lot. Holy Sepulchre Cemetery seen to the north across Leavenworth.

 

 

A few years later in 1880, Anna Caroline Nielsen and her parents, Hans and Johanna Nielsen immigrated from Denmark. I found the Hans H. Nielsen family living at 4839 Leavenworth by at least 1903; they potentially moved there much earlier. This home address is directly across the street from the gated entrance to Holy Sepulchre. By 1906 the Nielsens had amassed a good chunk of land all along Leavenworth and to the south.

1906 Evening World-Herald. Mr. Nielsen selling lots on Leavenworth.

 

 

It appears that the parcels bordering the south side of Leavenworth remained empty and park-like for many years to follow. The 4839 Leavenworth home site of the Nielsens was down a ways from the 50th and Leavenworth corner. All this to say that lots near the actual corner of our interest were empty. To keep things straight–let us remember that the laundromat site is a large parcel including Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6.

 

 

 

The yellow square outlines the Nielsen properties that I have found. Daughter Anna Caroline Nielsen became a key figure that I trailed because she was also buying other land around town, I believe for her parents or the family business. The lots encapsulated in the yellow square would become variations of Nielsen additions. The turquoise plot of land was the Nielsen family home, interestingly, never incorporated into their subdivisions and remains in “city lands.” Image borrowed from the Douglas County Assessor site.

 

 

I am still putting this together but at this point it seems that an evangelical group, sometimes calling themselves the Holiness Tabernacle would set up canvas tents and housing on these empty lots “near 50^th and Leavenworth” once a year for their “Mission Camp.” From my readings it was a revival of sorts magnetizing families not only those from Nebraska but from Iowa, Ohio and Kansas. By my 1920s discovery of the group, they had already gathered there yearly for twenty years straight. This just in—the Omaha Milk Dealers Association regularly met to picnic and discuss milk prices in the early 1900s at this very site. Was there something about this area that was special to people, was there an actual church or was it just an empty park-like convenience? Did this draw have anything to do with why the Catholic Church also chose their Holy Sepulchre site? Or was that merely a solid choice because it was on the edge of town, with forty available acres? I am not suggesting that these are Earth Energy Ley Lines or ancient water dowsing sites used for channeling but…

 

of interest to the environment, an article arrived in December of 1920 announcing they discovered a natural spring “rivaling” the pure mineral water spring of Elmwood Park.

 

World-Herald archives. Dec 28, 1920. “…like a quagmire emptying into Saddle creek and no one suspected its value until recently…” Note that zoning permitted the erection of a bottling works at 50th and Leavenworth by a J. J. Yager and M. D. Albrecht as long as, the city stipulating, the public shall have “free access to the spring at all times.”

 

Dowsing Rites

 

Right away I questioned this article, thinking of the known spring site directly to the south at about 50th and Saddle Creek Road. Sure enough, in 1921 the same J. J. Yager did become the president and owner of the Fontenelle Mineral Springs Company, a new bottling works, at 50^th and Woolworth Avenue, a one story building. The Fontenelle Mineral Spring Company was exactly at 1419 South Saddle Creek Road and was open to the public as a natural spring into the 1930s but its primary operation was that of a soft drink factory. John J. Yager arrived in Omaha in 1880 and purchased the Fontenelle Springs ground in 1921. He sold his interest in 1952, a year before his death. Yager had explained the water coming from a deep artesian well that was free to the public as long as they brought their own containers. “We have 3,000 gallons of the finest water in Nebraska going to waste every hour.”

 

 

 

Dingman’s Collision Center at 1419 South Saddle Creek Road is the crossing place of 50^th, Saddle Creek and Woolworth. The spring is in the basement along the once Saddle Creek.

 

“Filling jugs from the cold stream” became a daily past time for many Omahans willing to traverse the Fontenelle Spring staircase since the “water famine” of 1923. The city had put in electric lighting at that time and foot the bill until 1935, when the City Council pulled the plug. At that time Mr. Yager closed his Fontenelle Mineral Spring to the general public for fear of someone falling in the dark leading down below.

 

Of interest the Elmwood Spring, thought to have the most mineral dense, clear, drinkable water in the whole area was a straight shot to the west up Leavenworth and in the Elmwood Park. If Mr. Yager bought the spring site at 50th, Saddle Creek and Woolworth, why did the paper mention him wanting bottling rights at the 50th and Leavenworth spring? Was there an additional site there or was this a mistake? I would tend to be dubious of the newspapers in most cases, but I would find Mr. J. J. Yager operating a “soft drink stand” at the 50th and Leavenworth spring site when his bottled root beer goods were absconded by thieves years later. His bottled elixirs were sold from a shanty of sorts on about Lot 5 of the laundromat site. This all made me wonder, was this yet another spring source in his Fontenelle empire or a great, well-traveled intersection of which to sell his root beer from? I kept chiseling.

 

This was at an interesting time in Omaha when there was still a Saddle Creek not only a Saddle Creek Road. Unbelievably an alligator between three and four feet was found on the banks of the Saddle Creek in 1926 by little Norris and Robert Easley of 5005 Woolworth. Their father and a neighbor man “subdued” the alligator and it was later exhibited at the grocery story at 50th and Leavenworth Street. (I would later put together that this was the West Omaha Grocery Company in the 5002 Leavenworth building where McMillan’s Antiques are now.) Weirder than the alligator’s very presence on the banks of the creek, was the explanation: “…it may have escaped from a private pool on some nearby estate. E. M. Martin of Fairview, vice president of the Guarantee Fund Life Insurance company has such a pool and lost an alligator about a year ago.” The alligator was considerably bigger than Mr. Martin had remembered and it was questioned how the gator might have lived through the hard Omaha winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nielsen Addition

 

Hans and Johanna Kristine Pedersdatter (Pederson) Nielsen had a number of children–some died young. Anna, their oldest was born in Magleby, Praesto, Denmark in 1878. Their second child, Nels Peter, was born in Douglas County as well as there other children: James, Hans, Carl, Chrisina, Clara, Johanna.

 

 

Father Hans H. Nielson died in 1938. Mother Johanna Kristine Pedersdatter (Pederson) died in 1943. Daughter and seemingly real estate manager Anna Caroline Nielsen Parks, died in 1964. All photo are from Costafortune collection.

 

 

Nielsens Addition’s first mention was found in local papers in 1908, although as I showed earlier, Mr. Nielsen was selling “cheap and desirable” lots by 1906. Hans Nielsen and primarily his daughter, Anna, had launched a subdivision in their name. Soon after, I found owners of Nielsen Addition were ordered by the City Council and the mayor that sidewalks be constructed along the south side of Leavenworth.

 

 

At the time of the 1910 U.S. Census the Nielsens still resided at 4839 Leavenworth. Anna Caroline was a single 32 year old, stenographer, living with her parents along with her siblings. The neighboring homes were filled with Danish people all around them. Petersens and Rasmussens all born in Denmark.

 

 

Nielsen’s Park

 

I would learn something very interesting in this twelfth hour. The Nielsens had maintained a “West Side Park” on this swath of land along Leavenworth for many years. It was often said to be at 49th and Leavenworth but it did extend up to 50th. This is why so many large groups gathered here at this divine site across from the cemetery. Over time it became Nielsen’s Park.

 

 

Wrestling! 1907. Omaha Bee News.

 

 

 

 

1909. Omaha Daily News. Bring your lunches to Nielsen’s Park.

 

 

 

Omaha’s Danish newspaper, Den Danske Pioneer of June 1911 called it Hans Nielsen’s park.

 

 

 

Of interest, in 1910 there was a bit of a scandal in Nielsen’s Park. Mrs. T. E. Brady accused the park of hosting dancing and drinking after curfew on Sundays. Mrs. Brady went before Governor Shallenberger to report of violations to the eight o’clock closing law. She told of a park in her neighborhood where the tickets of admission were sold at the door amounted to like amount in alcoholic drinks. She told of the young boys and girls who frequent this place, which flourishes past eight o’clock on Sundays. The policemen apparently stood at the door to keep order “and he is perfectly cognizant of what is going on.” Then Mrs. Brady stated that Mayor Dahlman picnicked at this place just last month “on a Sunday” with the Liberal Club. This dirty dancing and drinking park was none other than Nielsen’s Park.

 

1911. “Dahlman was there.”

 

This wild and wooly park couldn’t go on forever and the Nielsens apparently broke the whole area up into lots for sale.

 

 

The 1918 Baist Real Estate Atlas of Surveys of Omaha. Page 27R. Red arrow points to lots 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of Nielsen’s Addition. No building on the lots at the time of this map. Sorry it is cropped but note this pink subdivision is within Nielsen’s Addition whereas the green area, to the east, is Nielsen’s Second Addition. The yellow arrow point to the 4839 Leavenworth house, which was the Nielsen’s family home. Great map borrowed from the Omaha Public Library.

 

 

 

 

Lot Six and New Neighbors

 

In 1924 the southwest corner of 50th and Leavenworth was built up with a fresh, new brick structure. It still stands and is now labeled 5001 Leavenworth.

 

This corner has been many things in all these decades, many times offices. It was Hollywood Cleaners for a long while. Funny, because it was next to the Omaha Lace Laundry site. Kidz of the Future II most recently operated a daycare at 5001 Leavenworth until the tragic death of toddler, Ra’Miyah Worthington. She died August 21, 2023 when left in a daycare transport van in the parking lot behind the building. RIP.

 

 

 

I believe that the Consumer’s Oil Company filling moved into our southeast corner (Lot 6) where the laundromat is now in 1926. Mr. M. M. Rosenblatt had been in the coal business in Omaha for more than 25 years by the time he opened his “lubricating oil and gasoline” station at 50th and Leavenworth. It remained Consumer’s Oil in 1928 but by 1930 it was called City Oil Company filling station. I was interested to find in 1937 the station had a postal address of 4975 Leavenworth beyond the vague 50th and Leavenworth. Again in 1943 it changed over to the West Side Service Station at 4975 Leavenworth.

Meanwhile on the diagonal corner of northwest 50th and Leavenworth, I discovered Paul Greeve (sometimes Grene) and J. P. Jepperson (sometimes Jeppesen) operating their West Omaha Grocery Company back in 1920. Of interest, these two fellows were also from Denmark. In 1926 “H. F. Nielsen has started construction work on a building for Jepperson and Grene” on the 5002 Leavenworth site, which is the current building as we know it. It would later become Steve’s Market, a neighborhood favorite that friends still mention. My question is, was the builder potentially a misspelling of Hans H. Nielsen? I realize there were probably many, many Hans Nielsens and H. Nielsens, for that matter, during this time period.

 

1960 Sun Newspaper. Boat in the road! Camera facing northwest angle toward Steve’s Market. Neighborhood favorite at 5002 Leavenworth Street. Notice the Hollywood Cleaner’s sign on the 5001 Leavenworth building.

 

 

Steve’s Market is now McMillan’s Antiques at 5002 Leavenworth.

 

 

 

 

 

In the Dark

I would trip across Notice of Sheriff’s Sale in 1928, logged in the Daily Record. There I found our defendant Anna C. Nielsen whose Lots 4, 5, 6 in Nielsen’s Addition were sold to the City of Omaha, as surveyed, platted and recorded. What was the problem there? I’ve got to think that the family bought the lots back because by 1940, there was an additionally weird notice. A Notice of Condemnation from 1940 “to Hans H. Nielsen, Johanna K. Nielsen, last owners of record, Frank G. Kriss, last mortgagee of record of the property known as 4939 Leavenworth” Lot 5 in Nielsen’s Addition.

 

OWH. 1940. “That the owner, aged, mortgagee or record or leasee of the frame root beer stand located at 4939 Leavenworth Street situated on Lot 5, Nielsen’s Addition, be notified to appear before the City Council of the City of Nebraska…” They were asked to appear in court and show cause “if any there be, why such a building shall not be declared to be a nuisance and be ordered torn down and removed and the cost thereof assessed upon and against said real estate.” It appeared that Mr. Yager’s old, odd, root beer stand  was being condemned by the city.

 

 

Neither of these photos are of Mr. Yager’s turned Mr. Kriss’ root beer stand, I only supplement these to give an idea of tiny, shack like structure that served a walk up-drive up clientele back in the 1930s. Root beer was a big deal in these decades.

 

 

 

 

1941 aerial photograph of the site. One can see the large park like area of Lots 6 through 1. Is that a filling station building in Lot 6 of the farthest southeast corner? Yellow arrow points to about Lot 4-5, where the root beer stand was torn down. Photo borrowed from Douglas County/Omaha NE GIS Department (DCGIS) site.

 

 

 

More Hinky Business

 

OWH archives. 1944. It was not looking good. Another tax sale title auction by sheriff’s deed. What was going on here? Tax Foreclosure for whomever had owned Lots 4, 5,6 (where the laundromat now stands) in Nielsen’s Addition.

 

 

 

The fascinating 1947 Omaha, Nebraska Real Estate Atlas. Sheet: 124. Borrowed from the Omaha Public Library.

 

 

Detail from the above 1947 Omaha, Nebraska Real Estate Atlas. Sheet: 124. Borrowed from the Omaha Public Library. The red star at 4975 Leavenworth Lot 6 was the West Side Service Station. The striped line running down Leavenworth coinciding with the letters “O & C. B. ST. RY” denotes the Omaha and Council Bluff Street Railway.

As a reminder the current laundromat site is a large parcel including Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6.

 

 

 

Dream Town

 

Ted Hicks was a local realtor and sometime developer. We have come across his name in our previous investigations. The Ted Hicks Company was no stranger to the 50^thand Leavenworth corner, having set up his realtor offices in the 5003 Leavenworth building years before. I discovered Mr. Hicks applying for a building permit in 1952. The permit was for an $8,000 building at 4959 Leavenworth

 

1952 Daily Record showed Ted Hicks had applied for building permit for an $8,000 office building on Lot 3 in the Nielsens addition at 4959 Leavenworth.

 

 

 

In August of 1952 the Ted Hicks firm opened their Mid-Century Modern office building at 4959 Leavenworth to the public. It was championed for having been built quickly. “Construction on the one-story building began July 25. The building is faced in stone, with large plate glass windows at the front. Sides and the rear are finished in stucco. It contains 1,200 square feet of floor space, doubling the firm’s previous accommodations. Off street parking will be provided. The Erwin Bridgeford Construction Company had the general contract.” Was that a rooster?

 

If you were a regular to Space City, this building possibly looks familiar to you.

 

 

 

Ted Hicks’ building struck me as the younger, more casual, open-minded sister of the sleek, beautiful, uptown 3624 Farnam Street.

 

 

 

 

December of 1952. Daily Record. Meanwhile Harold Armstrong brought a suit against the Johanna Nielsen heirs on neighboring Lots 4, 5 and 6. “Quieting the title,” as it reads means the Armstrong was challenging the Nielsens in court for the purpose of determining ownership of the property. I am not sure where there was an ownership dispute to begin with. I wondered if the gas station housed in Lot 6 had some kind of rent to own agreement in addition to other lot renters (example of the root beer stand) that became complicated over time. Certainly with the Nielsen parents having passed away, I could see that things could become hazy. And truth be known, there was a lot of haze. Daughter Anna Caroline Nielsen was now going by Caroline Parks. She had given birth to a daughter, Margaret, in Colorado and by the 1940 U. S. Census, lived with this daughter and grandson, Kenneth Thurston, very near to 50th and Leavenworth.

 

 

 

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The Second Stranger

 

April of 1954 was last time I found Ted Hicks operating out of the little, quick building he had created. In May of 1954 Hicks began renting to retail food brokers, Cartan & Jeffrey Company. In April of 1958 Cartan & Jeffrey Company acquired the building in full from Ted Hicks. Then as the business world turns, Cartan & Jeffrey Co filed for intent to dissolve their brokerage in May of 1961.

 

1955 aerial of the corner at 50th and Leavenworth. Positioning of the Ted Hicks building within proximity to another structure. Photo coming up! Aerial borrowed from Douglas County/Omaha NE GIS Department (DCGIS) site.

 

Union Service Pharmacy at 4955 Leavenworth was built in 1961. New front office space added later. Then the owner applied for a building permit for four partitions within in building and soon it evolved into Rae’s Beauty Salon and then the Michael Anzalone Salon. Sandy Kay’s Salon and Tanning moved in by at least the very early 1990s and was there until recently. Now the parcel includes lot one and two in Nielsens addition.

 

 

 

March of 1962. Camera faces southeast across 50th and Leavenworth. The exterior of a Mobil Filling Station. The Ted Hicks building to the east has a sign that reads, “The best dressed cookies wear Diamond Walnuts.” Let’s talk about those best dressed automobiles! If you notice the cars are lined up as if against a fence, whereas the property, currently at least, extends to the south. I think a following aerials illuminates this better. Photographers: Bostwick, Louis and Frohardt, Homer. Durham Museum. Is this Mobil station the front building of the laundromat?

 

For comparison sake. Not exactly the correct positioning of the camera, but I do believe it is the same building. The laundromat in 2022.

 

 

 

Detail. Photographers: Bostwick, Louis and Frohardt, Homer. Durham Museum. This building would become the Son-Beem Service Station by 1963.

 

 

 

Easier to see from the eastern elevation without the faux eaves. Sure looks like an old gas station to me. Winter of 2018.

Side Note: Businesses with five or more front doors are my favorite mystery. Businesses with multiple signs and many different names advertised in different fonts are my idea of a good puzzler. To normals passing by, it reads as CrazyNess or possibly Dangerous.

 

 

 

 

1962 aerial borrowed from Douglas County/Omaha NE GIS Department (DCGIS) site. I see either a barrier or fence extending from the Mobil station or possibly the beginning of the laundromat to follow. I like to see the proximity between the Ted Hicks building and the Sandy Kay building. Also it appears an addition was made to the Ted Hicks building, almost doubling the square footage to the south of the parcel.

 

 

 

 

In the Clearing

 

 

 

The first time a coin operated laundromat moved into Lot 6 was Schaefer’s Wash’ N Dry Clean in 1963. This structure was behind the gas station and to the west of the corner lot. It carried a new address of 807 South 50th Street, signaling that its door must have faced west.

 

 

Gateway Newspaper: January 11,1963. Schaefer Coin Operated Wash’n Dry Clean. 807 South 50th Street.

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial of 1973 better reveals the new laundromat addition. Aerial borrowed from Douglas County/Omaha NE GIS Department (DCGIS) site. Although the address displays as 807, that front building was confusingly still 4975 Leavenworth and the back building was 807 South 50th Street for a time until at some point they merged. By 1970 it was Acamo’s Coin-Op offering dry cleaning and coin machines. Then they close in 1973. The corner sat silent until 1977. Then another laundromat moved in.

 

 

Addendum of March 9, 2024: Sarah Averill Karnes shared: “My great uncle, Clem (Clement) Acamo, owned the gas station (filling station)/laundromat. My dad worked there as a boy doing full service fill ups. Clem is buried across the street at Holy Sepulchre. He died in 1985. Coincidentally my husband’s grandmother worked at the Laundromat. Omaha is one large small town. The filling station and laundromat were open/owned by Acamo’s at the same time. My dad believes the filling station closed around 1970. Then the Acamo’s just owned the Laundromat.” Thank you, Sarah!

 

 

 

 

 

I had taken the photo back in a 2018 snowstorm. This is the western entrance of the Schaefer Coin Operated Wash’n Dry Clean. The remnants of the early 1960s are still evident. Also note the original gas station structure.

 

By the very late 1970s or 1980 at the latest, the Tidyland Coin Laundry and Dry Cleaning moved into their second location at 50th and Leavenworth. Camera faces south where the once gas station and laundromat connect. It seemed like by 1987 it had moved on. Winter of 2018.

 

 

 

 

Birth of the Cool

 

In 1981 Gizmo’s Amusement Center at the Westroads and Computer Games, just west of 90th and Center, begin filling their arcades with video games. Gizmo’s had been in business a while offering pinball, skee-ball and bumper cars but I am reviewing when video games really exploded; Gizmo’s was all over it in 1981. Computer Games was right by the Putt Putt Golf miniature golf range.

 

1981 Computer Games advertisement. I think they moved into House of Pies, which is a great visual. This place looked cool, had great graphics to a young person and it was awesome inside. I seem to remember an orange interior.

 

The times were changing and in the words of one 1981 headline from the World-Herald: Youth Going Inside to take on Alien Forces.

 

There was an invasion going on and we were excited for it. Video games were in the home. Video arcades would pop up around town; games were included in pizza shops, movie theaters and convenient stores, even hospitals were getting them. Bullwinkle’s on 80^th and Dodge was open 24 hours a day with over 50 video games. They offered hotdogs, fries and snacks for kids.

 

 

Kevin Kuselsika, 13 years of age in 1982. “It’s a bright spring day outside but in the noisy darkned room, kids stand glued to TV screens.”

 

By May of 1982, video games were everywhere and it was fully embedded in the culture. It has never left, although fans don’t all gather at arcades or video parlors as they were called. There are still retro style arcades, of course but many choose to play at home. Here’s a fun list of arcades from spring of 1982 when Sweet 98 (haha) sponsored a Pac-Man Fever tournament.

 

May of 1982. Whoa….I just noticed that Space City had a CB location also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Space City Attacks

 

Friends had told lore of Space City on Leavenworth. Although I’d never been or even heard of it in its day, it sounded like just my kind of dark, neighborhood emporium. I made it my mission to find out where it was and all that I could. After much parleying, Space City ended up being located in the Ted Hicks building, to the east of the laundromat. I traced it to its origin in 1982. It seems by late 1983-early 1984, it was gone. Steve Latch appeared to manage Space City. I would learn later that he owned it as well.

 

 

1982 aerial. Yellow arrow points to Space City with lots of cars parked by that west side entrance. Image borrowed from Douglas County/Omaha NE GIS Department (DCGIS) site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the Ted Hicks building again. Some remember this west, what I’d call a side door, used as the entrance to Space City.

 

In its short time on the block, Space City made a huge impression with the young locals.

 

My girlfriend, Michelle McCormack remembers Space City fondly. She lived in Dundee. “We spent a lot of time in there growing up. The Jones Street Posse would walk down there together. First place I remember smelling pot!”

 

My guy friend, Dylan Gaughan, also grew up in this neighborhood: “I possibly remember exactly where the Space Invaders machine was, and a weird incident where, if I remember correctly, I opened a door to a basement and may have stumbled upon people doing drugs…if I’m not insane and there truly was a basement.”

 

Another buddy, Brett Nebbia, grew up on the other side of the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery: “I remember somebody had spray-painted on the west side of the building ‘Teenage Wasteland.’ My dad used to give $20 bill a day just to stay away from him so that’s where I spent my $20 every day and overnight because it was open 24-seven. The cemetery was a hopping place every night because of Space City.”

 

My good friend, Mike Barna, had this to say of Space City: “I lived on the other side of the cemetery from Space City and was there often. You could get eight tokens for a buck. It was a weird place. For a while it was open 24 hours. It was shady, it always seemed like the owner was a bit shifty. Never went in the basement, but as young teens we figured something illegal was going down. Then again, I was supposed to be staying away from Gizmos and Space City and the like, as they were ‘nothing but trouble’. We snuck out of our houses a couple of times and went there at about three in the morning, which really wigged out the owner. He’d ask us to leave. Then the owner started dating a girl I went to high school with, maybe while she was still in high school.” Addendum of March 9, 2024: “We have since looked into this and Steve Latch, arcade owner, was not the person that Mike remembers. Perhaps it was another employee.”

 

One such fellow was “Richard Wingate, ‘totally engrossed’ son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wingate of 5032 Pierce Street.” OWH June of 1982.

 

At a time when parents and professionals were becoming concerned with “kids getting hooked” on the video games, because of the hypnotic audio and visual patterns of the machines and the thrill of the challenge, Steve Latch was quoted in 1982 as saying, “A few people are blowing it out of proportion. Parents should have enough control to say to kids, ‘Don’t watch; don’t go there,’ if that is warranted.” The article warned that parents were reporting children stealing from their mothers’ purses or family piggy banks to get quarters for the machines.

 

 

 

1982. OWH articles. Climate of the times. The jury’s still out.

 

 

 

Space City was doing something right and in August of 1983, the small arcade was hosting statewide tryout to help find members of a national video game team. Ahem. Walter Day, 34, of Otttumwa, Iowa was looking to recruit a team to play against “video wizards in Japan sometime in 1984.” Lordie. The contest to find team members was sponsored by Twin Galaxy International Scoreboard out of, you guessed it, Ottumwa, Iowa. This company acted as “official scorekeeper and holder of video information around the country.” Day was on the board of directors. I wonder how that professional team turned out. No doubt the Omahans competing had a blast.

August of 1983. “Steve Harris, 16, of Kansas City racks up points on Star Wars Game at Space City as Walter Day watches.”

 

 

 

Space City then offered something no child, teen or young dude obsessed with videos could resist—they stayed opened 24 hours a day starting in November of 1983. Employee Don Jensen said the all night patronage was “surprisingly good.” He labeled the overnighters “college students” and others “working the graveyard shift on their lunch break.” At that time Family Fun Center at 71st and Dodge was open until 1:00am.

 

 

One of the all-nighters of Space City.

 

In my search I would come across a robbery in December of 1983 at the 4959 Leavenworth Space City and then nothing. It disappeared much as it started, without any fanfare. The Space City business was gone. If anyone has any photos of the Space City arcade, interior or exterior, I would love to include them in this article. Please make contact.

 

I am not entirely sure that this is the same person who managed Space City but in July of 1984, Steve Latch was killed. He was living in Lincoln, Nebraska at the time. The fact that the deceased Steve Latch’s memorial services were held at John A. Gentleman’s hints that it might be the same man and he is the correct age. Latch apparently fell off of a moving car being driven by a Waverly teen, after the two had stopped their cars and exchanged words. One guy drove off in his car and Steve jumped on the moving vehicle. Steve Latch died of severe head and other bodily injuries after being dragged. Later two teens were charged in this case.  RIP.

 

At the time of the 1993 aerial photograph, even the 4959 Leavenworth building that Ted Hicks erected was gone.

 

1993 aerial. The 4959 Leavenworth building is leveled but the laundromat has grown. It looks like the laundromat bought up Lot 3, razed the building and added the east addition. From then on the 807 South 50th Street parcel included Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6. Image borrowed from Douglas County/Omaha NE GIS Department (DCGIS) site.

 

 

 

 

 

The Home Stretch

 

With the 4959 Leavenworth building gone, the laundromat continued through the decades under a few owners. I honestly only ever saw a few cars here; this Prius was a constant and I began to think the owner lived in the laundromat, which I kind of liked to dream on. I had not seen anyone going in or out of the buildings in a very long time. I am not sure how it stayed in business at all. Maybe some of you can shed light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo collage by Auction Mill from their sale of the laundromat.

 

 

 

I took this one on July 29, 2023.

 

 

 

As we wrap up today’s investigation, let’s think about and look out for the weird, stray structures of our town. Even secular buildings have architectural value. We survey and scrutinize them in our investigations because they carry essential history and explain how a district developed. For example Leavenworth, as we have known her, was characterized by one and two-story buildings, often times shops attached to the front of residences. A city changes; structures change; meanings change. I understand. We watch and take notes.

 

I’d like to thank my friend, Dylan Gaughan, for telling me about Space City years ago. It was his idea that I do an investigation on the arcade he remembered from childhood.

 

As always, keep those peepers popped.

Miss Cassette

Now I really must get back to the current investigation at hand.

 

 

**Addendum of October 11, 2024** Cox Contracting Co. began taking down the structure on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. The following images are from October 9, 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I welcome your feedback and comments on this wild little corner of Omaha. Let’s hear it for 50th and Leavenworth, old and new. Please share your additional clues to the story in the “Comments,” as we know more together. Everyone would love to read what you have to say and it makes the sharing of Omaha history more fun. You can use an anonymous smokescreen name if need be. We want to hear from you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5020 Leavenworth in 1961.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Miss Cassette and myomahaobsession, 2024. 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.

 

 

If you are looking for more architectural and Omaha history sleuthing fun, ask your local or bigbox bookseller for my book: My Omaha Obsession: Searching for the City. Also available everywhere online. Thank you.