The Jewell Building is a city landmark in North Omaha,

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

. Built in 1923, it is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Located at 2221 North 24th Street, the building was home to the Dreamland Ballroom for more than 40 years, and featured performances by many touring jazz and blues legends, including

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

, and

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...

The building has been designated as a Landmark by the City of Omaha, and is listed on the

. It is an example of the kind of venue that was integral to the cultural transmission and interchange of musical styles and art, especially in the years before television. In addition such entertainment centers were the chief ways that musicians, both local and national, earned enough to make livings.

About

Located at 2221-2225 North 24th Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, the Jewell Building was built in 1923 by James Jewell Sr., an influential man in the local

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

community. Architect Frederick A. Henninger designed the building in the vernacular Georgian Revival style. It originally featured commercial spaces on the first floor, as well as the Dreamland Ballroom on the second floor. In 1945 Dreamland Ballroom was used as a

USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...

center for

soldiers. It continued to be used for music performances until 1965. The Omaha Economic Development Council (OEDC) restored the building in the early 1980s. It was designated as a landmark by the City of Omaha on September 9, 1980, and was listed on the

in 1983. For several years, the Jewell Building housed OEDC's corporate headquarters and served as an office center for professional people and small businesses. Two private apartments were kept in the building.

Dreamland Ballroom

Located on the second floor of the Jewell Building, the Dreamland Ballroom was the premier

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

for big bands and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

in Omaha. James Jewell Jr. booked the original

Nat King Cole Trio Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and pop vocalist starte ...

for $25 a person for one show. Other performers included

Dinah Washington Dinah Washington (; born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a ...

Earl Hines Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...

, and

.(nd) Official Nebraska Government Website. A variety of Omaha music legends including Preston Love, Anna Mae Winburn and Lloyd Hunter also played at the Dreamland. The ballroom closed in the 1960s. James Jewell was an influential man in the black community, and he invited activist Whitney Young to speak in the 1950s at Dreamland Hall about the Civil Rights Movement. Young started in Omaha and became the national director of the

Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

External links

Dreamland Historical Project
website for project to preserve the Dreamland Ballroom in the Jewell Building.
Modern photo of the Jewell Building
Historic Omaha

References

{{NRHP Omaha Jazz clubs in the United States Landmarks in North Omaha, Nebraska Omaha landmarks History of Omaha, Nebraska National Register of Historic Places in Omaha, Nebraska African-American history in Omaha, Nebraska Music venues in Omaha, Nebraska Dance venues in the United States Former music venues in the United States Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Defunct jazz clubs in the United States Music venues completed in 1923 Buildings and structures completed in 1923 1923 establishments in Nebraska

About

Dreamland Ballroom

See also

External links

References