Central Fire Station (1965) - 1516 Jackson

Omaha Fire Department's Central Station (1965) - from Google Street View

 To kick off my Omaha history blog, I am starting with a building my wife has particularly liked, the Omaha Fire Department's brutalist headquarters, built at 1516 Jackson Street.

George A. Hoagland house at 16th and Howard in 1880
(from Omaha Illustrated (1888)

What is considered downtown Omaha today with offices, hotels, the police and fire station was once considered part of Omaha’s finer neighborhoods. George Hoagland built his fashionable residence at 16th and Howard Street in 1880.

As warehouses and commercial concerns began taking over the neighborhood, the once fashionable homes were razed to make way for business. By 1900, Davis and Cowgill Iron Works was listed as operating at 15th and Jackson. In 1907, Rome Miller built the Hotel Rome at 15th and 16th and Jackson, and the city auditorium was finished in 1904 at the southeast corner of 15th and Howard.

The Hotel Rome was razed in early 1961, and the site was used as a parking lot. In 1965, the City Council condemned the site and began procedures to purchase the lot for $396,699, a location which would allow the city to close three stations in the near-downtown area. Total cost of the building was estimated to be at $1,125,000 with funding to come from a $1,500,000 bond issue. Henningson, Durham, and Richardson was chosen as the project’s architectural firm, and A Borchman Sons Co. was the general contractor. The project hit immediate cost overruns, finding that 15 to 20 feet of fill would need to be removed, containing rubble from the old Rome. The fire department headquarters was completed in 1968.

1965 Omaha World-Herald - excavation begins at
16th and Jackson for the Central Fire Station.

In 2008, the firm of Lund-Ross renovated bedrooms, restrooms, and other housing areas in the fire station. A renovation of the fire chief’s offices was also completed. New community rooms, dining areas, sleeping rooms, and restrooms were built by Lund-Ross, as well as a new reception area, with costs at $1,700,000. The architectural firm of Jackson-Jackson & Associates designed the renovations.

The style might best be described as Brutalist, a style popular from the 1950s and 1970s, particularly for many government projects, and which communicated strength and functionality. 

HDR's conception drawing - Omaha World-Herald (1965)