Historic Points of Interest: In 2002, a section of the neighborhood (generally Idylwild Drive to 40th Street, Holdrege to Apple) was officially designated by the Lincoln City Council as a Landmark District. Houses in this area display a wide diversity in sizes and styles from the first half of the 20th century. This portion of the neighborhood is distinguished by very long blocks on N. 37th and N. 38th Streets lined with cast-iron street lights, mature landscaping, and stately houses, known colloquially as "Professor's Row."
The “Interurban” Line of the OL&B Railroad served the area from 1905 through the 1920s, connecting the City of Lincoln with University Place, Bethany and Havelock. Its former right-of-way serves as a pedestrian path from Idylwild to N. 38th Street through the center of the Landmark District.
Recreational Opportunities: The neighborhood is home to three parks within its boundaries. Idylwild Park has a unique triangular form at the intersections of Idylwild Drive, Apple and 35th Streets. Picnic tables and a sand volleyball court are present on the site. ECCO Park at 48th & Holdrege Streets is a green space that functions as a retention area for storm water.
Playground facilities are available at McAdams Park near 44th & Y Streets. The East Campus Community Organization would like to see walking trails and other park amenities, including a picnic shelter and a drinking fountain added to the park in the future.
The former Missouri-Pacific Railroad is now known as the MoPac Trail and serves as a conduit through the neighborhood between Apple and X Streets. The MoPac Trail also serves as the southern boundary of McAdams Park and continues east of Lincoln through Walton and Lancaster County.
Directly north of the neighborhood on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus, you can see baby calves, horses and lambs. For many years, residents have gone to the campus to visit the cattle pens and the ice cream store. The campus is home to the beautiful Maxwell State Arboretum, as well as other features.
Businesses: A variety of businesses serve local residents and the region. Several neighborhood businesses have maintained a long and storied history in their current locations, including Madsen’s Bowling & Billiards at its present location for over 40 years.
Madsen’s Bowling & Billiards: 4700 Dudley
Husker Sew & Vac: 1309 N. 48th
The Fish Store: 921 N. 48th
Public Transportation: Star Tran bus lines offer connections with downtown and all other parts of the city. The East Campus neighborhood is served by the Bethany, University Place and East Vine routes, as well as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shuttle between the Downtown and East Campuses. For route information, call (402) 476-1234.
Churches:
American Lutheran Church, 4200 Vine
Vine Street Missionary Baptist Church, 3700 Vine
Warren United Methodist Church, 1205 N. 45th
Neighborhood Activities: The East Campus Community Organization (ECCO) is a dynamic and active neighborhood association. The Board of Directors meets the second Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at Warren United Methodist Church, 1205 N. 45th Street. ECCO sponsors an annual spring clean-up, the Independence Day parade and ice cream social and an Annual Meeting in October, as well as co-sponsoring and supporting other events in the neighborhood. A newsletter is delivered to every residence three times a year.
East Campus Oral History (transcript)
East Campus Oral History (Completed 1981-1982)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, East Campus
The College of Agriculture was established in June 1872. The first “Model Farm” consisted of several parcels of “Saline Land” in the vicinity of the present State Fairgrounds. This land proved to be unsuitable and a search was started in 1874 for a better site. They found a farm some distance from the downtown University. The farm contained 320 acres and they paid $55 an acre. The farm had 4 miles of Osage orange hedge, 25 acres of young timber, 300 apple trees, 50 peach trees, a good 10 room stone house, a good frame barn and a granary.
They wanted to call it Agriculture College and not State Farm because of the State Hospital. It was more than a farm, so it went from State Farm to College of Agriculture. Between 1875 and 1890 the name was changed from Agricultural College to Industrial College. For a while, it was called college of Agri-Economics. Now it is known as East Campus and rightly so because of the four colleges: Dental, Agriculture, Law and Home Economics. Sometimes the downtown campus people would call it “Egg Campus.”
The School of Agriculture opened in December 1895. This was a high school course and was very popular with emphasis on Agriculture and home economics. It was a dominant activity on the Agriculture campus. From 1899 to 1900 there were 100 students, but by the end of 1909 there were 600 students. They outnumbered the college students. In 1895 there were only 15 college students and in 1990 there were only 66 students. With the development of more rural high schools, the school of Agriculture closed in 1929. Mrs. Ruth Hill and her sister lived downtown and rode the O.L. & B. railroad (Inter-Urban) to where it crossed Idylwild, then walked to campus. The school year lasted 8 months, which meant students had to work very hard to be done that soon. They also had a school at Curtis, Nebraska to serve the western half of Nebraska.
The grounds on Ag Campus had lots of flowers and lilacs. There were large cottonwood trees that lined the road leading to the horse barns. Mr. Dunn was a landscape artist in charge of campus grounds. He kept the grounds full of flowers. There was a lake at 33rd and Holdrege called Lake Dunn.
The object of a Sunday afternoon was to find the pair of peacocks that roamed the campus, watch until the male spread his tail, then go look for lost feathers.
Mr. Les McAdams remembers walking the railroad track from 22nd & R with a quilt and a sack lunch for picnics when he was young. They played baseball on a diamond where the Kellogg Center is now.
Many families and their friends enjoyed going to campus to see the baby calves, lambs or the shearing of the sheep. The milking parlor was located just north of the present day Dental College. The first dairy barn was located on the site of the C.Y. Thompson Library. The Library is named after C.Y. Thompson, who was President of Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation and a Regent for 18 or 20 years. Children and visitors enjoyed watching the cows being milked and the flow of milk through the glass tubes. The drive to the milking parlor with the flowers on both sides of the road made the ride worthwhile.
The ice cream store has not changed much since 1928. Mrs. Alice Weaver would put her two children in a wagon and pull them to get ice cream cones. She can remember as a child also getting ice cream from the store. Her mother would order ice cream from them and they would bring it out to 19th and Harwood. Mrs. (Derrick) Kinnier would go to the ice cream store as a child and get old cottage cheese to feed the cats at the barns. She knew where every “cat” nest was.
At one time the University owned the KFAB radio station. Educator George Round, would “throw on a robe or something” to go to the Ag Hall to do a daily 6:00 a.m. radio program that lasted 5 minutes.
Every spring students would put on a Farmers Fair. They did demonstrations of their work and made horse-drawn floats that were paraded thru downtown Lincoln. The entire East Campus was fenced off, admissions were charged to observe the demonstrations that the students put on. They had a dance in conjunction with the Fair. A rodeo was frequently held. Mrs. Mary (Derrick) Kinnier remembers as a child dressing up as pioneer children and walk over to the Fair. They also had Coll-Agr-Fun on campus. Different organizations put on stunts and acts. This was held in the winter and the Fair in the spring.
Dances were held in the upstairs of the horse barns until an activities building was built. Intramural basketball games and many other events were held. The activities building preceded the Student Union.
Farm House had their headquarters at 26th and O where the Hinky Dinky store is now located. They would invite the faculty for Sunday dinners.
In 1920, Legislature introduced a bill requesting that all tractors be tested because of poor quality. A great number of tractors were being manufactured to replace horses and mules that were sent to France during WWI.
Our neighborhood surely has had an influence on the Agriculture Campus. Many building are named after former neighbors: Filley Hall, Loeffel Meat Lab, Mussehl Hall, Keim Hall and others. Maxwell Arboretum honored another former resident.
CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES
The first meetings of Warren Methodist Church were held in 1905 in Pleasant View School. That was located near the old Riley school at 50th and Orchard Street. In 1909, 85 members built a temporary church. The site of the church was moved to 45th and Orchard in 1916. Mr. Elmer Magee owned the land around 45th and Orchard, which he donated for the new church location. The old church was used as a community house. The kids held basketball games, dances, parties and roller-skating in it. The present church was built in 1971 and has grown to 420 members.
Mrs. Edna Lyness organized a Warren Methodist booth at the State Fair. It had the reputation of serving the best homemade food and pies at the fair. They used the profit to pay off the Sanctuary.
Warren Methodist needed a lectern so they asked Mr. Charles Booth if he could make one. It is still used. Mrs. Constance Booth was Warren’s first organist. She also taught Sunday school for 25 years.
Neighborhood children used to walk to Warren church for Sunday school. They would have to tip toe around mud puddles because Orchard Street wasn’t paved. Everyone went to Sunday school and summer school.
Warren Methodist had a special Easter Program. They put on pageants and had an orchestra that would play for Sunday morning services. Another group the younger children would be in was the choir. For the young people, there was Loyal Friends class and a group called the Young Married class.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church was first located on 24th Street. The church was originally started in the priest home about 1922. Members bought land at 31st and T. They built a church and school together in the same building in 1927. In 1953 they built the present day church.
There were other churches in the area. Temple Baptist church was on the southwest corner of 27th and Holdrege. In 1913, there was a Salem Evangelical Church at 29th and Holdrege. In 1931, two lots were bought at 33rd and Starr and the two congregations united. They renamed themselves the First Evangelical Church. In 1968, the Evangelic United Brethren and Methodist denominations merged to become United Methodists and the church today is known as Faith United Methodist.
In 1923, Faith Church of the Nazarene was located at 710 N. 35th Street.
SCHOOLS
Hartley School was built in 1921. Children have always walked in large groups to school. There wasn’t a cafeteria so the children had to bring their lunch or if they lived close to school, they could walk home for the hour lunch break. Hartley had no traffic problems then because Vine Street was only paved to 35th Street. After that it was a dirt road. Mrs. Jean Armstrong went to Hartley the first day that the school opened its doors. It also was her first day in Kindergarten. Hartley went to the 8th grade. The students then went on to Lincoln High or Northeast. Later, Whittier Junior High, at 22nd and Vine, and Culler Junior High at 53rd and Vine were built.
In 1953-54, Hartley and Elliott Schools had a PTA Mothers Club. They formed a choir that practiced at P.S.A.B.
Mrs. Alice Weaver did her practice teaching at Hartley, later her children and grandson attended Hartley.
Riley School’s first building was north of the present day school. Riley had a teacher named Evelyn Kahoa who has a school named after her.
Kids had to walk to school in the streets or yards because there were no sidewalks. Sometimes galoshes and bicycles got stuck in the mud. The Lyness’s children from the Agronomy Farm walked to Bethany School from 72nd and Adams. Bethany also had a high school. The Lyness’s went to Cotner College to hire girls to babysit for their children.
Jackson High was located where Huntington Elementary School is now. It was first called University Place High School and later changed to Jackson High School. After part of Jackson High burned, they built Northeast High School. Northeast had Junior High grades until they built the junior high schools.
STORES AND BUSINESSES
Small grocery stores played a large role in the neighborhood. There was Chase Grocery on Fontenelle Street, Lang’s at 31st and U Street and White House Grocery at 42nd and Holdrege, which was used to deliver the groceries. There was a grocery store where the print shop at 1035 N. 35th is. A lady operated a dry goods store there also. Mrs. Edna Lyness shopped at Piggly Wiggly in University Place. Val Weiler had a grocery store called Val’s market at 35th and Holdrege. It was a little fruit market. When the kids of the neighborhood were sent there to get groceries, Val would give them some gum or candy. He was having a bad time in the store. His wife made wonderful pizzas and they were encouraged to sell them. They closed the market and began to sell pizzas.
A brick building was once located on the site of Valentino’s parking lot on Holdrege. This building was used as a bookstore, root beer stand, drug store, barbershop, College of Religion and a service station.
Baughan’s Drug store was on the northwest corner of 33rd and Holdrege. In 1938, all fireworks were legal. One day there was a large round of explosions. Someone had shot off a roman candle that went into the stand and the explosion broke all the windows in the store.
White’s service station at 33rd and Holdrege employed lots of students. There was a fruit stand near the orchard at 40th and Holdrege. A big sack of apples cost 25 cents.
Hill Hatchery got its start at 56th and Orchard. Now the Lutheran School is there.
The Clifton Farm at 48th and Orchard raised popcorn and also had big popcorn stand for many years.
Skyline Dairy was located on the corner of 48th and Holdrege. They delivered dairy products.
TRANSPORTATION
Inter-Urban
The O.L. & B., also known as the Inter-Urban, was originally to extend from Omaha, through Lincoln to Beatrice. It was organized on March 3, 1903. Grading began and a five-mile route from Lincoln to Bethany was completed. In 1905, the first year of service, it carried 378,413 passengers. Discontinued in 1928, it was purchased by George Abel in 1929. Lumber was one of the freight items carried for the N.P. Lumber Company in Bethany. Today the O.L. & B. is mainly a switching railroad, interchanging cars from the Burlington Northern, Missouri Pacific, Union Pacific and North Western railroads. It also served Fremont, Ashland and Weeping Water, carrying sand and gravel. The O.L. & B. cars are painted bright red and bear a “Big Red Line” slogan along with a white football helmet. The reason for the “Big Red” is that George Abel, Jr., is a former University of Nebraska football player and president of NEBCO Inc. It is now dubbed the “world’s smallest railroad” with only 2.67 miles of track. Sometimes it was called the “galloping goose” because it went so slow. The Inter-Urban was also called the “Owl” because it only ran till 11:00 p.m. It wasn’t very reliable. If Lincoln had a bad snowstorm, it just didn’t make it. You had to get off in the middle of the street because that is where the tracks were laid. For 7 cents a trip, the Inter-Urban started at 14th & O Streets and went north to where the University power plant is now, then angled to Y Street, ran down Y Street to 33rd and angled up north of Dudley and east to 49th Street. The track then curved north to Baldwin and on to Bethany, ending at 70th and Adams. The train turned around and came back along the same route. At 49th and Baldwin, there was a “Trapper” line that serviced University Place. That was just one steam-powered car while the Inter-Urban was one larger car. People depended on the Inter-Urban for transportation between downtown and East Campus. In 1920, the InterUrban built a car barn on 30th and Apple that is now used by the Game and Parks Commission.
Mr. Charles Weaver was a good friend of the engineer on the switch engine for the American Stores meat car. The engineer also switched for Abel Construction Company. One day Mr. Weaver took his children, Bob and Barbara, to the engineer who gave them a ride on the switch engine. Since Mrs. Weaver could hear the whistle out in the backyard (the train tracks ran north of her house) she looked out and saw Mr. Weaver, the engineer, Bob and Barbara, all waving from the engine.
The Inter-Urban ran south of Paul Blumer’s home at 1329 N. 40th Street. One summer day while he was home to eat lunch, he was interrupted by the train’s whistle. He went outside to find the train had stopped because the engineer thought the children’s plastic swimming pool was too near the tracks. He had to empty the swimming pool and move it so the train could proceed.
After the O.L. & B. took up the tracks, the property owner along the right-of-way had the choice of buying the land. People used to dump their clinkers and grass clippings along the tracks. In order to bring the right-of-way level with the land, some owners used about 14 loads of dirt.
Missouri-Pacific
Missouri Pacific had a depot at 33rd and Apple that was used by the people waiting to go to Union, Nebraska. Called “a puddle jumper,” the train also went to Weeping Water twice a day. The Missouri Pacific cars were painted blue and seemed to have lots of accidents. Some people believe this was because the cars blended with the sky. Troops stationed at the Air Base in Lincoln were transported from Kansas via railroad. They would go by, hanging out the windows, waving at the residents of this area.
Children have always put pennies on the tracks to be flattened by the train. When Paul Blumer was a child, they would put pennies on the track. As the train neared the children, Paul froze and Virginia Koening ran up and pulled him off the tracks. The kids also rode their bicycles along the ties.
One winter, the kids piled snow to jump onto at the bottom of the viaduct at 35th. During the afternoon it froze solid. Mr. Blumer jumped off to prove to a friend that he could do it, but it nearly killed him. At the ends of the viaduct, there are small spaces that the kids could fit into and wait for the train to pass over their heads. The viaduct has always been painted and decorated by various high school students. It would get painted about twice a year.
When Mike McAdams was three years old, he was sitting on the tracks. The conductor had to stop the train and bring him home.
The rickety wooden 45th street viaduct over the train tracks lead to the dusty path that was Vine Street. One time a Cub Scout den went to the wooden viaduct to watch the train go under them. Tim Champlin lost his gold cap. After the train went by all of the scouts went down to look for it and found it.
Kids would walk to Bethany Park along the tracks. The railroad bed was full of wild roses, violets, and grapes. With a fruit jar full of water and a sack lunch, they would spend the day. Hobos and tramps also walked the tracks. They would stop and ask for food at neighborhood homes.
Landy Clark Lumber Company, the present site of Hyland Brothers Lumber Company, used to haul coal on the freight trains. They would unload the coal with shovels all night long. Residents could hear the coal hit the chute and go into a truck.
When the Willard Lyness family moved to Lincoln from Walthill, their possessions were brought in a boxcar and moved into their new house located next to the tracks.
Street Cars
The streetcar, owned by the Lincoln Traction Company, went down the north side of Holdrege Street on tracks between the sidewalk and the brick-paved street. It stopped at 37th Street, turned around and headed back downtown. A wheel ran along the overhead wire. The engineer was on the front of the streetcar and the conductor on the back. When the Inter-Urban stopped passenger service, the streetcar extended their service to University Place and Havelock. Before Lincoln had Sunday movies, the kids could ride for 5 cents to Havelock and watch movies at the Joyo Theater.
Other Transportation
In 1921, Burlington had a Christmas rate for the University for 3 cents a mile. In one day, they took in $21,000. Burlington also had a railroad track that went up H Street. On that track all of the stone and lumber was hauled to the site of the new Capitol. Burlington ran 8 trains a day to Omaha. Mr. John McMahon worked for the Burlington for 47 years. Mrs. Louis Legg used to ride 8 miles on horseback for her piano and voice lessons.
Mr. Flack drove a car provided by the State Dairy Department. It had side curtains.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cox bought a car in 1940 and sold it in 1943 in order to make a down payment on their house. They felt they really didn’t need a car because they had bus service, which cost 5 cents.
Mr. Woodrow Hull’s first job was in Port Arthur, Texas, as an architect for $25.00 a week. He and his wife bought a little Ford Coupe for $75.00. They would shoot back and forth between Nebraska and Port Arthur in the little Ford. Each time they would return to Nebraska, he would go to Sears and Roebuck and buy five gallons of tractor oil. He guessed its weight was No. 50. About every 200 miles he would stop and pour in another quart of the “molasses.” They felt every time they came home, there was a blue cloud between here and Texas.
HOMES
With the campus just north of Holdrege, the area south was an ideal location for the people who worked or taught at the University to build their homes. 37th and 38th streets were called Faculty Row. In 1914, Mr. and Mrs. F.D. Keim’s home was the first one built on 37th Street, north of the Inter-Urban tracks. The rest was farmland. It seemed to be just a house in a field.
The Bullock farm was south of the Inter-Urban track at 37th and Apple. Flora and Edna Bullock lived with their parents who farmed the area. Their farmhouse, which is still standing, is one of the oldest in the neighborhood. Another farmhouse, owned by Leslie McAdams, is 140 years old. It was homesteaded by Mr. Becker, who had to give some of his land to the city to pay for the paving.
Mr. Henry Luckey bought much of the land and built many of the homes in this area. Mr. and Mrs. Luckey moved to Lincoln from Columbus, Nebraska, in March 1900 and bought 5 acres at 40th and Holdrege for $500.00. They built a 6-room cottage at a cost of $1500 (a good carpenter’s wages were 25 cents an hour). They kept a few head of livestock and planted an orchard and a garden. In this way, they were able to live while Mr. Luckey attended the University. They also boarded students who were taking short courses at Agricultural College. In 1907, they had George Ridgway draw up plans for a new house. They had the 6-room cottage moved to 49th and Holdrege. Mrs. John McMahon spent her childhood days in that house. R. Luckey built many of the homes in the area from 1916 to 1929. 37th Street was known as Luckey Avenue. Around January 1, 1935, he arrived in Washington D.C. to take the office of United States Congressman, which lasted 4 years. In the spring of 1946, they sold their home on 40th and Holdrege to Farm Fraternity. Mr. and Mrs. Luckey also donated a 160-acre farm to Tabitha Home, an orphanage and a home for the elderly. The home was located at 48th and Randolph Street. The farm was to provide food for the Tabitha family.
Another builder was H.R. Smith. He arrived in Lincoln in the fall of 1901. Mr. Smith was recognized as an expert in the breeding of cattle and was also a member of the Agriculture College faculty. After taking a position in Minnesota, he returned to Lincoln around 1920. They lived at 38th and Dudley. He began to develop the area north of the Inter-Urban tracks. This area became known as Hazelhurst, named after his wife, Hazel. She was very artistic and also was very interested in the development of the area.
Before 1946, they had building restrictions on the height and roofline of houses to be built. Most of the homes had a colonial look. It also stated the distance between the houses. Before building, plans had to be approved. The whole neighborhood was to have been two-story homes. The house next to Mrs. Rose Frolik’s home at 3840 Dudley was similar in style but they made them put a steep high roof to make it look like a two-story house. Around 1946 the restriction lapsed and that was when the contemporary style houses were built.
If residents had any problems, they went to Mr. Mann, community attorney of the Hazelhurst community group. They met at the H.R. Smith home because he had the only finished basement. Neighbors complained about how dark the streets were so they went to the City Council to see what could be cone. Each property owner was assessed not over $40.00 for the ornamental lights that line the streets. The reason Apple Street doesn’t have the lights was because there were no houses at that time. Apple Street was formed by people taking a short cut through the cornfield from 38th to 40th. With so many people using the short cut, the city opened the road we now know as Apple Street. In 1959, Apple Street was paved.
Another group, the Will-Eva Club, was formed in order to get improvements in the area. Will and Eva Elmlund invited four couples to form the organization in the fall of 1921. Limited to 20 members, they called it “Just Among Ourselves,” but later changed the name to the Will-Eva Club. This club still meets once a month for dinner. Members were required to live within the boundaries of 40th to 48th Streets, Holdrege to the tracks. In their constitution, there are three restrictions: you can’t discuss religion, politics and you can’t gossip. They sometimes have to laugh about the restrictions and tease each other saying, “You’re bordering on politics.” You also have to be a homeowner to belong.
Kathryn Dean is one resident that was drawn to the neighborhood by its beauty. The whole area had large elm trees that arched over the streets. Because of Dutch Elm disease, they are now gone. Residents remember that on 37th, during the summer, it was a little cooler because of all the shade. Mr. George Moseman once said to Mrs. Sutton that on 38th you could walk up and down the street and never touch a patch of sunlight. It was just like driving through a Cathedral on Dudley Street, recalls another resident.
Real estate people were then and still are apologetic about the price of the houses in this community. They would say, “If this house were over south, I could get such a price,” or “Oh, you don’t want to live in that area. It is for Professors only.” People were also told that very stable and dependable people bought in this area because they don’t buy over their income and they have pride in the area. The people were discouraged also when realtors would say, “When you go out there, you will get the smell of cattle.”
The Lincoln city limits ended in the middle of 40th Street. University Place was on the other half. University Place, Bethany and Havelock all had different sets of addresses and their own telephone book. Lincoln wanted to pave 40th and University Place didn’t have the money so only the west half of 40th was paved while the east half remained dirt. It remained that way until late in the 1930s.
The Filley house address was 544 K Street when they were in University Place. But when they were taken into Lincoln their address became 1336 N. 44th Street. Mrs. Filley designed their home. Mr. Filley was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1910. Mrs. (Filley) Schwartzkopf said that with all of the trees in the East Campus area, it was a wonderful place to grow up, just like a park. The three large pine trees that remained after the house was moved were planted by her father in 1918 or 1919. Mrs. Schwartzkopf went to Riley School and had to cross 48th Street when it was known as Warren Street. 48th was a dirt path that started on O Street and ended at 48th and Holdrege. It didn’t go any farther because Mr. Arrigo’s fruit stand was in the middle of the dirt road. Mr. Arrigo hated to give up his fruit stand. He had specials, 99 cents for a crate of grapes about 1930. Nobody ever took 48th until after World War II. Before it was paved, you had to drive up and over the Missouri Pacific track. People called it Miracle Mile because it was a dirt path for so long, that the paving of it made a great change.
Woods Brothers had horse barns east of 33rd almost to the end of Idylwild Street around 1919. Their horses could bring high fees: $20,000 to $40,000 for a good imported stallion. They would let the students from the college use their horses to learn how to judge them. Some of the pipes that were used to water the horses are still visible on 37th Street. They had their own horse cemetery. After the horse stables were taken down, some of the lumber was used to build homes in the area.
Loomis Hall, a residence for girls, was located at 1411 N. 37th Street. It has a gorgeous winding staircase and some of the girls have been married on that staircase.
There were no dormitories on Agriculture Campus, so students stayed in private homes. Mr. and Mrs. Keim took in boy roomers for $10.00 a month with two boys to a room. Later in the 1950’s the students paid $30.00 a month. In 1945, with the veterans returning after the war, the Agriculture College asked homeowners to take roomers in. Mrs. Ruth Hill had two students stay with them. Mr. and Mrs. Lester Larsen still have three or four foreign students living with them. They have had students from 14 different countries. Mrs. Larsen’s large stamp collection is a result of all the correspondence with former students and with the tractor-testing program. Mrs. Flack had girls stay with them. The girls had to work for room and board. It was 25 cents for the room and 25 cents for the meal. The girls would arrange their schedules so they would be free in the afternoons so that Mrs. Flack had time for herself and other activities. Mrs. Marty (Hill) Cleland remembers that her mother always had help because her mother helped her father in the Hill Hatchery business and was also active on the school board for 18 years. Taking in roomers was a typical practice for many people in the area.
Mrs. Mable Rosenquist said that they never had good grass because sometimes there would be 20 youngsters on the front yard. She remembers one night one of the boys had come over to play and was using bad language. One of the girls said, “If you use that kind of language, I’ll wash your mouth out with soap.” He didn’t return for a while but when he did he didn’t use bad language again. Mrs. Rosenquist’s son, Bob, started the first neighborhood circus. They held it for two years. She would give ice cream to the kids after they paraded around. Another neighborhood circus was started by Frank Drier in 1971. He got his idea after seeing the Ringling Brothers Circus. It was called the World’s Greatest Neighborhood Circus. The first circus took place August 24, 1971. The first performance had 24 children in it and collected $5.51 in a free will offering. The children decided to give the money to the Folsom Children’s Zoo. The neighborhood circus lasted for seven years with the last performance on August 4, 1977. Usually 80-100 children between 18 months to sixth graders performed with the Jr. and Sr. high school ages serving as roustabouts, technicians and makeup artists. A total of $1078.73 has been given to the Folsom Children’s Zoo and each year after the performance the children were invited to the zoo after the zoo closed for the season.
In 1921 and 1922 there were only two houses between 38th and 40th on Holdrege Street. All the rest were vacant fields. On the site of Regents Hall, the University raised chickens and later there were experimental plots for wheat and corn. Once in awhile you would see a pheasant there. In 1924 when Mr. and Mrs. John McMahon moved to 1401 North 40th Street, he paid $1,600.00 for his home. There was nothing but cornfields east of 40th and Dudley. In 1943 when Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cox moved to 1145 N. 44th Street, there were only two houses on the block. When Mr. and Mrs. Martin Alexander moved to 3910 Orchard in 1931, there were no homes to the east of them. The children played in the cornfields all around. Mr. and Mrs. Claude Minteer paid $800.00 for their lot and $1400.00 for their home in 1924. There were wheat fields all around them, farmed by the Bullocks. Mr. Wayne Packard remembers that the wheat field caught fire around 1921 or 1922. All of the residents got wet sacks or anything to fight the fire. In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Phillips bought their lot for $250.00. Many of the homes or lots were bought at auction. Many times these auctions were tax sales in order to pay the city taxes.
Mrs. Keim and Mrs. Larsen both had chickens in their back yards, which kept them in eggs. Mr. Cannon lived on the south side of the Missouri tracks and he and Mr. Lester Larsen got together and formed a cooperative dairy project in 1950. They had a sturdy barn and they bought a dairy cow. Mr. Cannon would milk her in the morning and Mr. Larsen in the evening, alternating times every week. Each of them had 4 children. Mrs. Anna Ruby lived at 848 N. 44th Street. They moved to the 4-acre farm in 1936. They paid $1500.00 for it. They had 200 baby chickens, 15 goats and a garden that contained rhubarb, grapes, peaches, raspberries and a variety of vegetables. They sold goat’s milk and their other products to stores. Around 1955, houses along that area started to be built, the streets were paved, and sewer and gas pipes installed. Before that, cooking was done with coal.
Before the installation of the larger sewers, kids would go to 35th and Idylwild and Apple to play in the waist deep water caused by heavy rains. The water would also collect at 34th and Starr Streets because it was so low. In the summer, kids could pick up crawdads and in the winter, ice skate. Apartment buildings, later bought by the University for faculty housing, would also get flooded. In 1925, there was quite a rain storm and some of the houses along 33rd and Holdrege were washed off their foundations into a ditch that ran along the east side of 33rd and Holdrege.
Around 1908 to 1910, Rev. Carroll Prouty was in the 7th grade. His class would hike to Peck’s Grove and have a school picnic. Peck’s Grove was located south of the Missouri Pacific tracks and east of 33rd Street. Peck’s Grove was a regular wilderness with the huge cottonwoods. All of the students would write their name on a piece of paper and put it in something that they treasured into a bottle and bury it in Peck’s Grove. Peck’s Grove was named after Philetus Peck who owned the land and planted cottonwoods, walnuts and plum trees. Mr. Les McAdams remembers walking there with his mother to pick walnuts and plums. Mrs. Pauline Morey said that her husband, as a child, would spend the whole day at Peck’s Grove. They would go swimming or fishing in a pond there. Mrs. Morey said that Woods Brothers had drawings for lots in Peck’s Grove. The winners were to build on the land. Most of the people built the garage first and later couldn’t afford to build the houses so they turned the garages into houses. That is the reason that the houses are set back from the road. The Morey’s won a lot but had to turn it back because they couldn’t afford the taxes, let alone build a house. Sometimes Mr. Morey would make a fire in a cement block form and put an over shelf across it. He would cook meat and potatoes for about 40 of the friends.
At 3915 Apple, the home of Dan Lutz, there was a Jack Pine tree in the front yard. It died a slow death from a winter storm in 1969. Early in the spring of 1980, the tree was to be taken down but the chainsaw broke. Grandpa Lyle Lutz, who lives with his son, had read about Peter Toth, a woodcarving artist. Mr. Toth was carving a large cottonwood Indian sculpture for the Lincoln Indian Center. Mr. Lyle Lutz contracted with Peter Toth to do a Lincoln sculpture in remembrance of his own father who was a soldier in the Civil War and had shaken hands with Lincoln. Mr. Lutz enjoys the personal visits from people who stop by to talk about his sculpture.
ACTIVITIES
Open spaces in which to roam around the East Campus area have made it an enjoyable place for children to grow. On their bicycles they could go to the campus and visit the cattle pens and the ice cream store. Many bicycle races have been won around the blocks of Dudley and Orchard Streets. Baseball games on the empty lot at 3900 Dudley kept the weeds down. In the summer, lots of very serious croquet games were played with partners. They even had croquet tournaments. Kick-the-can, hide-and-seek and marbles were also summer favorites. A monopoly game would be set up in the Akerson’s garage and it would be left up all summer. Another pastime was lifting up the manhole covers. They could walk in the sewers all the way to Wyuka Cemetery. When the wind was from the west, kids would get on roller skates, find a large piece of cardboard, and travel from 35th and W to 40th and W by wind power. At the site of the Farm House Fraternity on 36th and Apple, there was a junkyard full of old Model T cars and trucks. The neighborhood kids would pretend to drive the abandoned vehicles. When the sidewalk was put in on 36th and Apple, it became a popular place to coast because it was so long and smooth. It went to the 35th Street viaduct. Families would put their leaves in the street and burn them. The smell was so neat. The kids would play in the leaves while their fathers would try to rake them. Bob Rosenquist wrote to tell how the kids felt when someone bought the empty lot at 1301 N. 37th Street. In the vacant lot were lots of trees and gullies, a jungle of undergrowth. The kids built tree houses, shacks and forts. Lots of wars, bb-gun battles and nature studies are part of the empty lot. Bob Maxwell and Sam Engel had a communication system. Sam lived in the middle of the block between 38th and 39th on Dudley. They ran a wire all the way over to Maxwell’s house on 40th and Dudley, creating their own private phone. It wasn’t just a coffee can and string, it was electric.
Dorothy Schwartzkopf is remembered as the best female athlete in the neighborhood.
In the winter, the kids would sled down Apple Street, starting at 38th and ending at 35th and Idylwild. They would also ice skate on the ponds in Wyuka Cemetery and Peck’s Grove. The tractor-testing site was also flooded and frozen for skating. Snowball fights from forts built in the front yards were some of the winter fun.
Mrs. Mary Kinnier had a girl friend whose father farmed and had a large truck. He would load up the truck with students from Jackson High and go to the out of town games. They also went sleigh and hayrack riding. After the rides they would go to Mrs. Kinnier’s house for chili soup that her father made. In University Place there was a City Hall, now the Our Place Restaurant. They could have parties and dances on the second floor. Jean Armstrong’s brother, Harold Spencer, used to deliver the Saturday Evening Post. The distributors delivered great stacks of them to the house, which he would then have to deliver to his customers, who paid 5 cents for each copy. It was like a newspaper route.
College students had big dances every Friday and Saturday night, all winter long. They were very formal. Men always wore tuxedos and the ladies wearing long dresses. After the dances, they would go to the Cornhusker Hotel and taste the pastries.
Mr. and Mrs. H.R. Smith gave wonderful entertaining parties. For one huge school party, they had a huge wooden platform built and hired a dance band. Their daughter played the harp at many of the neighborhood parties.
For entertainment, adults went to Wesleyan or the University for plays. Sometimes they would play miniature golf at 48th and O Street for 25 cents. Fourth of July was a special treat of homemade ice cream and cake. Residents entertained in their homes. They would roll up the rugs, revealing oak, polished floors. It wasn’t wall-to-wall carpeting like today. Sometimes they would hire someone to play piano or turned on the radio for dancing. They also had dinner parties and played cards afterwards. Mr. Oak Davis would open up his home for all kinds of parties. Nevada and Geneva Wheeler had parties at their home. For treasure hunts, they would go around the neighborhood to find articles.
The faculty had a dance club that met once a month at a hotel downtown or at a golf club. It was a dress up affair. They also played bridge. A lot of times courting was done in the backyard where people had gliders. When Mr. Brehm was courting Mrs. Brehm, they would go to 33rd and A Street where Smith’s Dairy was located. Mr. Brehm says he won her with Pecan Perfecto. They were married standing in front of the fireplace in their home at 3701 Apple in 1929. Lovers would park in the cornfield in the area. The neighbors would chase them out when they noticed them.
The women had to make lots of their clothes because the selection wasn’t very good, or they didn’t have the money to buy them. They had to get up early in order to get their wash done. They washed clothes on a wooden board. They hung their clothes out on the lines in the winter and the clothes would come back in the house stiff as a board.
In the 1930s, the iceman would arrive in his horse-drawn wagon twice a week to deliver about 50 pounds of ice. Some people had a little door on the outside of their house and a chute that went into the ice box on the inside of the house so that no one had to be home when he came. Kids remember the iceman using an ice pick and chipping off small pieces of ice for them to suck on.
Coal was delivered to the house by way of chutes put through small doors on the outside of the house that led down to a coal bin in the basement. The bin was filled for the winter use. The coal was very dusty and had to be wet down so that the dust didn’t go everywhere.
Mrs. Lola Flack canned about 700 jars of fruit every year. Mrs. Mabel Rosenquist would bake bread twice a week. The kids could smell the fresh baked bread and after school, all the neighborhood kids would eat a whole loaf of fresh bread.
When Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Werner arrived in Lincoln in 1918, it was in the midst of the influenza epidemic. About 25 people died a day. Theaters and churches were closed and gatherings of more than three people were forbidden. Doctors would make house calls and helped deliver babies at home. If a home had scarlet fever, measles or chicken pox, that home was quarantined and a sign was placed outside warning other people to stay away.
Mr. Wayne Packard remembers when the Lincoln Star newspaper was in the Back to the Bible building located downtown. The sports writer was Cy Sherman, who nicknamed the University football team the “Cornhuskers.” When the team played football out-of-town, fans would go downtown to stand across the street from the Star and Cy Sherman would use a megaphone to call out the window the plays that were received over the news wires.
On Sunday afternoon, people would load up their cars and go to Capitol Beach. They would have a picnic and enjoy the fun house, roller coaster, rollerskating or swim in the saltwater pool.
Mr. Hull said every architect has to build his own home sometime in his life just to prove that he can do it. Mr. LeRoy Neuman built his home and 40 other homes.
Doc Louis Skidmore and Mr. William Derrick would make homemade root beer. You could hear it when one of the bottles blew up. The Derricks never had a ceiling that didn’t have root beer stain on it. Doc Skidmore was a veterinarian but took care of all the neighborhood kids’ cuts and bruises and swabbed their throats with mercurochrome. He also took care of everyone’s dogs and cats. Doc seemed to take care of everything.
True story is told by Mr. Louis Legg: A Mr. Milo Arms owned the house before they moved in. During the first week they were there, someone called on the phone and said, “Is this the Arms’?” and Mr. Legg said, “No, it is the Legg’s.” The man hung up before Mr. Legg could explain.
During the depression, you could go over to the campus around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. and see men and women looking through the trash cans for food. In 1932 instead of salaries, the faculty was paid in warrants that paid 7% interest and they could sell these warrants for money. They were tax-free. Also during the depression the chancellor called a faculty meeting and announced that everyone would take a 26% cut in salary. Everyone was doing without something. Because nobody had phones, Mr. Paul Blumer’s father had their phone taken out since there was no one to talk to.
During the war, one had a choice of terrible coffee or awful coffee. Sixth graders from Hartley sewed small squares of material together for blankets and sent them to the soldiers. During World War II women would fold and roll bandages to help the Red Cross. They wore white robes and no nail polish while doing it. They entertained soldiers from the Air Base in their homes and went to USO dances.
In 1941-42, Mr. Harvey Werner taught physics to Navy flyers in a Navy Agriculture program on the AG campus. The Navy had 400 boys marching every day down 37th, 38th and Holdrege Streets. They marched 10 men across and 20 men down every street.
THOUGHTS
Mr. Leroy Neuman thinks that it makes a difference for children to be able to talk to many generations and take your troubles to. Families took responsibility in looking after one another.
Churches and PTA are organizations that help a community stay together.
Many good things are available in Lincoln because of the University. It has enriched our lives.
“The neighborhood has great and friendly people. It has been a wonderful place to raise children.” “The people are always ready to help if anybody needs help but yet they didn’t interfere with your private life.” “I don’t know of any childhood group that would be any closer than the people of Hazelhurst.” “What makes a neighborhood is the wonderful people.” These are some quotes from some of the people interviewed. Almost all of them expressed the same feeling in one way or another. One particular thing that is remembered about the East Campus community is the good people. What makes a neighborhood good is the wonderful people who live there. This neighborhood has a special attitude not found in many others. People don’t seem to be afraid to care for others. It truly is a great place to live.
Project Director: Soni Cassell Administrative Committee: Jim Carr, Delores Himmel, Gordon Opp, Sue Scott Resource Humanist: Keith Ludden Script: Keith Ludden Narration: Doug Parrott Production: Keith Ludden Photography: Jim Carr, Dean Cassell, Keith Ludden, Doug Parrott Sources: Leslie and Fern Brehm, Nevada and Geneva Wheeler, Mr. and Mrs. John McMahon, C.W. Nibler, Lola Flack, George Round, Rose Frolick, Rufus Moore, Mr. and Mrs. W.E. Lyness, Mr. and Mrs. H.M. Cox, Mrs. Betty Sutton, Viola Hackman, Alice Keim, Fern Stage, Susan Minteer, Kathryn Dean, Pauline Morey, Gladys and Florence Peterson, Clara and LeRoy Neuman, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie McAdams, Olive and Harry Heald, Leonard Hoover, Charles Booth, Woodrow Hull, Martin Alexander, Jean Armstrong, Martha Cleland, Paul Blumer, Ruth Hill, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Larsen, Frank and Inez Mussehl, Wayne Packard, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Phillips, John Hobbs, Mary and Carroll Prouty, Louis and Daisy Legg, Dorothy Filley Schwartzkopf, Mabel Rosenquist, Harvey and Elsie Warner, Mary Derrick Kinnier, Mrs. Charles Weaver, Hazel Loeffel, Anna Ruby
Interviewers: Ginny and Dan Albrecht, Keith Ludden, Donna Champoux, Sue Scott, Kathy McKie, Dean and Soni Cassell, Connie Geist, Bud Goggins, Vera Mae Lutz, Doug Parrott, Carol Curtis, Jim Carr, David Thomssen, John and Marcella Ludden, Betty Peterson and Marie Kehr Researchers: Jim Carr, Chris Woodward, Dean Cassell and Keith Ludden
Transcriptionist: Nancy Brown
Typists: Delores Himmel and Dorothy Duey
Also thanks to: The Nebraska State Historical Society, The University of Nebraska – Lincoln Archives and Warren United Methodist Church
