Jim McKee: Lincoln mansions hidden in plain sight

Nearly all have had their surrounding land subdivided and developed, although the central mansions survive. One stays virtually fully invisible through the rising season.

In 1910 Arthur Ziemer moved into Maple Lodge, his just-completed 33-room, Colorado purple stone, Richardsonian Romanesque mansion which then sat on a 10-acre tract on the northeast nook of twentieth and Euclid.

A lot of the grounds have been subsequently developed as homes and, although sought as a car parking zone for the nursing/assisted dwelling residence to its north, it was restored as a personal residence and positioned on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.

William Jennings Bryan started buying land simply north of the village of Regular, centered round right now’s forty eighth and Sumner, in 1890. Fairview, which was surrounded by about 35 acres of land, was accomplished in 1902 whereas the household lived within the adjoining brick barn throughout development. Right now the Queen Anne mansion, additionally on the Nationwide Register, is almost surrounded by Bryan Memorial Hospital on floor given for the aim when Bryan retired to Florida.

The mansion of Lincoln businessman and member of the Nebraska Capitol Fee, William Hardy, Calvert Place, was constructed on a 10-acre website south of Faculty View round World Battle I. Now developed with homes, nonetheless on outsized tons, No. 1 Calvert Place sits on the north fringe of the unique tract, dealing with east at 4245 Calvert Road.

Lincoln entrepreneur J.C. Seacrest, whose early acquisitions included the Lincoln Night Information, The State Journal and streetcar traces, constructed his mansion, Wayside, on 23 acres at about thirty third and Sumner. Situated close to the Regular Road Railway. Seacrest even had his personal depot, named Antelope. The mansion nonetheless exists, south of the Antelope Park Pavilion however is completely hidden inside quite a few homes, developed on the unique grounds within the late a part of the twentieth century.

One of the vital intriguing mansions, Park Hill, sits on the northeast nook of fortieth and South streets, completely hidden seven months of the 12 months however in plain view when the leaves fall within the autumn.

Albert Oscar Faulkner was born in 1859 on an Iowa farm. After attending Iowa Wesleyan, Faulkner graduated from a Chicago medical school in 1883, then arrange a personal observe in Fairfield, Iowa. Later, serving as a medical physician for Fashionable Woodmen of America, a fraternal insurance coverage firm, he arrived in York in July of 1884 the place his son Edwin Jerome Faulkner was born the identical 12 months and continued his personal medical observe.

A.O. Faulkner established the Fashionable Woodmen Accident Affiliation in a downtown York basement and solely a 12 months later, moved the enterprise and his household to Lincoln. In 1895, dwelling at 1748 B, he and different buyers constructed the Fraternity Constructing on the southeast nook of thirteenth and N with the concept of offering workplaces for fraternal insurance coverage corporations and sponsoring organizations.

At about the identical however unspecified time, as a result of no constructing permits have been required exterior Lincoln’s metropolis limits, a home was constructed, probably by Louis Younger on the northeast nook of fortieth and South streets close to the route of the Regular Road Railway’s route.

In 1898 A O. Faulkner purchased over 30 acres of land southeast of Lincoln which included the fortieth and South Road home which Faulkner dubbed Park Hill, located on about 3½ acres of the land he additionally acquired. The doorway drive to the grounds and home entered on the nook with a bridge and drive resulting in the body Colonial Revival home with wrap-around porch protecting a lot of the south, east and north sides.

In 1905 household lore tells of George P. Abel, a College of Nebraska senior in civil engineering, constructing a car bridge of stone foundations and picket plank decking simply north of the South Road entrance, for the Faulkners. This is able to make the bridge the primary, albeit unofficial, venture of Abel Development Firm, which included in 1908 or 1910 and exists right now..

Park Hill offered, after Faulkner’s loss of life, to Lincoln lawyer and later Solicitor Common of the U. S., J.L. Rankin, then to John Ames, president of Banker’s Life Insurance coverage Co. and is now owned by Monte and Kathy McKillip as a single household residence.

Eventually examine, remnants of the picket/stone bridge are extant although the diagonal entrance was pressured to shut as site visitors on the now widened fortieth Road and South Road sides elevated dramatically. When the South Road trolley to Regular closed, one of many rails was pitched into the Ames’ entrance yard and forgotten. Reclaimed and salvaged within the Seventies and lower into 12-inch sections and nickel-plated, the rail nonetheless exists as mementoes.