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The Old Post Office was located at 16th and Dodge Streets in
The Old Post Office began construction in 1892 with $1.2 million in appropriations from the federal government. The outside of the building was covered with St. Cloud 
In 1966 the City of Omaha approved a plan for First National Bank to build an office tower and adjoining high-rise Hilton Hotel complex on the site of the Old Post Office. The City allowed the new buildings to be built on 16th Street which effectively blocked the main north-south street connecting the downtown commercial district with the adjacent North Omaha area. Critics charged that the closure of 16th Street was a heavy-handed attempt to inhibit the flow of blacks from the predominantly African-American North Omaha at a time of a fear of rising social unrest and riots nationwide.
Postcard
featuring the Old Post Office {{coord, 41.25986, -95.93729, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NE, display=title History of Downtown Omaha, Nebraska Government buildings completed in 1898 Demolished buildings and structures in Omaha, Nebraska Post office buildings in Nebraska Skyscrapers in Omaha, Nebraska Skyscrapers in Nebraska 1898 establishments in Nebraska Buildings and structures demolished in 1966 1966 disestablishments in Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...
. Built in 1898, the building was demolish
Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a b ...
ed in 1966. During the process of being demolished, the building, along with the Old City Hall Old City Hall may refer to:
Asia
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* Old City Hall (Hong Kong)
Europe
In Croatia
*Old City Hall (Zagreb)
In Denmark
* Old City Hall (1479–1728), in Copenhagen
* Old City Hall (1728–1795), in Copenhagen
* Old City Hall (Aalborg)
...
, became a rallying force for historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
in Omaha.
About
The Old Post Office began construction in 1892 with $1.2 million in appropriations from the federal government. The outside of the building was covered with St. Cloud pink granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergrou ...
on the first story; on the next three floors sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
was used. Polished granite columns held up stone archways on each of the five entrances, and on the east side was the main entrance. It was capped with a clock tower, with clocks on all four sides. A copper roof covered the entire building, except for the atrium court in the center, which was covered by a -square skylight
A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes.
History
Ope ...
. In the early years the building was identified as "The Custom House".
A formal opening was held in 1898; however, because of delays the building was not completely finished until 1906. The building was first identified for demolition by Omaha's civic leaders in the 1930s, who thought of it as an eyesore in a modern metropolitan city. Additionally, they believed that the prime commercial real estate it sat on could be better utilized.
In the early 1960s the General Services Administration
The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...
declared the building too costly to maintain and quickly built a new facility. Despite several suggested plans to renovate the facility, First National Bank of Omaha
First National Bank Omaha is a bank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The namesake and leading subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, it is the third largest privately held bank subsidiary in the United States with $17 billion in assets and 43 ...
demolished the building in 1966. One innovative idea was suggested by Joseph A. Suneg
Joseph Anthony Suneg (11 October 1897 – 21 May 1989) was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church in the United States and later elevated to Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius XIIHonorary Alumnus Citation, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, Janu ...
as early as February 12, 1939. He was planning a design for a new Catholic church at 62nd and Dodge Street and proposed salvaging the granite blocks. They would be marked, stored and later reconstructed into a church patterned after the post office.
More than 50 years after the building was razed, Douglas County Historical Society The Douglas County Historical Society, or DCHS, is located at 5730 North 30th Street in the General Crook House at Fort Omaha in north Omaha, Nebraska. The mission of the DCHS is to collect, preserve and present to the public the history of Doug ...
created the Ethel C. Flannigan Memorial Architectural Garden that showcases four granite pieces salvaged from the 1898 structure.
In 1966 the City of Omaha approved a plan for First National Bank to build an office tower and adjoining high-rise Hilton Hotel complex on the site of the Old Post Office. The City allowed the new buildings to be built on 16th Street which effectively blocked the main north-south street connecting the downtown commercial district with the adjacent North Omaha area. Critics charged that the closure of 16th Street was a heavy-handed attempt to inhibit the flow of blacks from the predominantly African-American North Omaha at a time of a fear of rising social unrest and riots nationwide.
Legacy
Landmarks, Inc., was organized in 1965 because of concern for the imminent demolition of the Old Post Office. The group has organized the Omaha community around saving the city'slandmarks
A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances.
In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...
.See also
*History of Omaha
The history of Omaha, Nebraska, began before the settlement of the city, with speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa staking land across the Missouri River illegally as early as the 1840s. When it was legal to claim land in Indian C ...
* Downtown Omaha
Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline ...
References
External links
Postcard
featuring the Old Post Office {{coord, 41.25986, -95.93729, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NE, display=title History of Downtown Omaha, Nebraska Government buildings completed in 1898 Demolished buildings and structures in Omaha, Nebraska Post office buildings in Nebraska Skyscrapers in Omaha, Nebraska Skyscrapers in Nebraska 1898 establishments in Nebraska Buildings and structures demolished in 1966 1966 disestablishments in Nebraska