The Cozzens House Hotel, later known as the Canfield House, was a pioneer

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

located at 9th & Harney Streets in downtown Omaha,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. Constructed in by

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

promoter

George Francis Train George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 18, 1904) was an American entrepreneur who organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he also organized the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier in th ...

, the 120-room hotel cost $60,000 to build in 1867. The hotel was widely regarded as the finest hotel between

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

when it was constructed.

History

In May 1867 Train was at the Herndon House in Omaha when a

windstorm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderst ...

hit the building. Train requested an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

steward in the hotel to stand with his back to the window he was sitting by, fearing the wind would blow it in and expecting the steward to block the glass with his own body. The hotel steward objected, and Train became angry and declared he would build a better hotel within 60 days. The Cozzens House Hotel, which was called the " Aladdin's Castle of George Francis Train", was his response. That same day Train bought the lot across the street from the Herndon House and secured a builder for the facility. Asking the builder how much it would cost to make a three-story, 120 room establishment, the builder replied $1,000 a day. Train said, "Show me you are worth it. I will be back to Omaha in 60 days and expect to sleep in the building." The building was finished upon his return. The building was a three-story frame structure in the shape of a T, the front part being long by wide, and the rear extension is long and wide. Train, whose financing operation called Credit Foncier owned the building, leased it to the Cozzens Hotel of

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

for $10,000 a year. They kept it for just a year, when they became involved in a lawsuit with the Omaha National Bank that eventually led to their departure. A local man named Philo Rumsey ran it until 1871, and then closed it. The building then sat empty for ten years afterwards, when J. D. Iler and James G. Chapman bought it in 1881. They rehabilitated the building, adding a brick basement and redesigning the interior. New windows, new chimneys and a new tin roof covered the entire building. A porch was added at the main entrance. At this point the hotel was lit by gas, supplied with hot and cold water, freight and passenger elevators, and regarded as first-class. The building contained 125 rooms after the $15,000 reconstruction. A Nebraska hotelier named George Canfield then ran it from 1888 until 1894, renaming it the "Canfield House." From 1895 to 1902 the

Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary The Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary was located at 3303 North 21st Place in North Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Opened in 1891 in downtown Omaha, the institution moved to the Kountze Place neighborhood in North Omaha in 1902 and closed ...

was located in the former hotel. It was replaced when the Seminary built a facility in the

Kountze Place The Kountze Place neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska is a historically significant community on the city's north end. Today the neighborhood is home to several buildings and homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located betw ...

suburb of

North Omaha North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the ...

in 1902."Presbyterian Theological Seminary"
Nebraska Memories. Retrieved 3/27/15. The building was demolished later that year.

References

{{coord, 41.2563, -95.9279, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NE, display=title Hotel buildings completed in 1867 Demolished hotels in Omaha, Nebraska Pioneer history of Omaha, Nebraska 1867 establishments in Nebraska 1902 disestablishments in Nebraska

History

See also

References