Lost Omaha by Janet R. Daly Bednarek

Author:Janet R. Daly Bednarek [Bednarek, Janet R. Daly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Economic History, History, United States, State & Local, Midwest (IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; ND; NE; OH; SD; WI), Photography, Subjects & Themes, Regional
ISBN: 9781467119849
Google: pEZPDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2018-01-15T16:02:05+00:00

The Jobbers Canyon Historic District included twenty-two “contributing buildings” and four “non-contributing buildings,” to use the language of the form submitted to the National Register of Historic Places. The contributing buildings, many designed by prominent local architects, included:

Rector and Wilhelmy Company Building (one of the oldest, with the original section of the building built in 1889)—hardware

American Radiator Company Building (designed by John Latenser, built 1905)

Lindsay Brothers/New Idea Building (1890)—farm machinery

Kingman Implement Company (U.S. Tire Building) (1900)

Crane Company Building (Nogg Brothers Paper Company) (1905)

Fairbanks, Morse and Company (1907)—industrial and agricultural equipment

John Deere Plow Company Building (1908)

John Day Company Buildings (1892)—hardware and contractor supplies

U.S. Supply Building (1906)—steam, water and plumbing supplies

Dempster Building (John Latenser, 1902)—agricultural supplies

Lee-Coit-Andreesen Hardware Company Building (1916)

H.J. Lee Warehouse Building (1900)—hardware

Harding Cream Company Building (1904)

Carpenter Paper Company Building (John Latenser, 1906)

Omaha Cold Storage Building (1913)

Creighton Block (1905)—dry goods

J.I. Case Plow Works Building (George Prinz, 1913)—agricultural implements

Trimble Brothers Building (John Latenser, 1920)—fruit and vegetable commission merchants

According to the nomination form, wholesale jobbing—buying directly from a manufacturer and selling to store owners—became a significant business activity in the United States starting in the 1850s with the construction of the first railroads. The railroads made the transportation of goods both faster and more dependable. At first, most wholesale jobbers located along the East Coast. By the 1870s, however, with the expansion of the nation’s railroad network, wholesale jobbers had set up in interior cities such as Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis. The first jobbers arrived in Omaha in the 1880s. Enjoying a brief period of growth during that decade, the trade suffered dramatically in the depression of the early 1890s. The return of prosperity late in that decade benefited Omaha tremendously. Omaha civic leaders also aggressively sought to build the city’s reputation as an important trade center. Most of the buildings in Jobbers Canyon were built in response to those developments. Local companies or investors built some of the buildings; others were constructed as branch offices for national corporations.114

By the late 1980s, the area was still the site of warehouse and wholesale operations. Wright and Wilhemy, a hardware wholesaler, ranked as one of the oldest businesses in the city. Founded in 1871 in Nebraska City as Larson and Wilhemy (which became Rector and Wilhemy in 1876), the company moved to Omaha in 1883 and built its warehouse on the riverfront in 1889. The company then doubled the warehouse’s capacity in 1905, three years after it became Wright and Wilhemy. In 1987, a company spokesperson said the warehouse currently had an inventory of over thirty thousand items and employed seventy-five people. Perhaps the most active business in the area was Omaha Cold Storage, “said to have once been the largest cold storage house between Chicago and the Pacific Coast.” It still operated in its 1913 building at 809 Farnam Street. The company also operated out of the Lee-Coit-Andreesen Hardware Company building, the Harding Cream Company Building and the H.J. Lee Warehouse building. Nogg Brothers Paper Company purchased the Crane Company building in 1966.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.