The Kountze Place neighborhood of

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

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 The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. It is located between North 16th Avenue on the east to North 30th Street on the west; Locust Street on the south to Pratt Street on the north. Kountze Place was annexed into Omaha in 1887. The neighborhood was built as a suburban middle and upper middle class enclave for doctors, lawyers, successful businessmen and other professional workers.

About

Bordered by the historic neighborhoods of the Near North Side, Saratoga and East Omaha, Kountze Place was an early

upper middle class In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...

residential suburb developed by Omaha banker Herman Kountze in 1883. It was originally accessible only via streetcar. In 1898 Kountze Place was home to the

Trans-Mississippi Exposition The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was a world's fair held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 1 to November 1 of 1898. Its goal was to showcase the development of the entire West, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Co ...

, a showcase for Nebraska's agricultural and Omaha's urban lifestyles. In 1899 some of the land that the Expo occupied was developed into

Kountze Park Kountze Park is an urban public park located at 1920 Pinkney Street in the Kountze Place neighborhood of North Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. The Park is historically significant as the site of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition of 1898. ...

. The area around the Park was filled in with housing afterwards, with some Exposition buildings being converted into grand houses. A March 1907 Omaha Sunday Bee advertisement promotes Kountze Place: Some of Kountze Place was affected by the Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913, with landmarks such as Trinity Methodist Church to be rebuilt in other parts of the city. Additionally around this time, many of Kountze Place's richer residents were lured to areas such as

Bemis Park The Bemis Park Landmark Heritage District is located in North Omaha, Nebraska. Situated from Cuming Street to Hawthorne Avenue, Glenwood Avenue to 33rd Street, Bemis Park was annexed into Omaha in 1887, and developed from 1889-1922. The district w ...

and

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

with promises of higher land values.

Landmarks

Several buildings and homes in Kountze Place are listed on the

and designated as

Omaha Landmarks This article covers Omaha Landmarks designated by the City of Omaha Landmark Heritage Preservation Commission. In addition, it includes structures or buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and those few designated as Nation ...

by the City of Omaha. Former landmarks in the area included the

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 i ...

, built in 1902 at 3303 North 21st Place. It was closed in 1943.

Omaha University

Omaha University, now called the University of Nebraska at Omaha, was once located on one city block at 24th and Pratt Streets on the Redick estate. Their proposed "magnificent campus" was slated to be placed between 21st and 25th Avenues, bounded by Kountze Park and the Carter Lake Park. Original faculty came from the aforementioned Seminary, as well as

Bellevue College Bellevue College (BC) is a public college in Bellevue, Washington, United States. It is the largest of the 34 institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system and the third-largest institution of higher educati ...

. The first class meetings occurred at the Redick Mansion at 24th and Pratt. In 1927 businessmen formed the North Omaha Activities Association in order to redevelop Saratoga School's playing field into a football field for Omaha University's football team. At that time the University was located just south in the posh Kountze Place suburb. With new bleachers built to accommodate a crowd of a thousand, the Saratoga Field was home to OU's team until 1951.(n.d.
Saratoga Field
University of Nebraska at Omaha website. UNO moved to its present location in 1929.

External links

"A History of Omaha's Kountze Place Neighborhood,"
by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com.

References

{{Coord, 41, 17, 21, N, 95, 56, 49, W, format=dms, display=title, type:city_region:US-NE Neighborhoods in Omaha, Nebraska History of North Omaha, Nebraska Historic districts in Omaha, Nebraska University of Nebraska Omaha Kountze family World's fair sites in the United States Trans-Mississippi Exposition

About

Landmarks

Omaha University

See also

External links

References