The Broomfield Rowhouse is located at 2502-2504 Lake Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. It was designed by

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Clarence W. Wigington, who was later regarded as a master in his field. His design for the house won a 1909 ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...

'' competition.Landmarks, Inc. (2007
"Landmark News,"
Retrieved 10/06/07. The house is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

History

This historic

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...

was built in the wake of the Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913 which ravaged Midtown and

North Omaha North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the ...

. The building was designed by Clarence W. Wigington, a well-known African American architect raised in Omaha. The influence of Wigington's mentor, Thomas R. Kimball, is evident throughout the design of the structure. Wigington originally designed the building in 1909 for a contest organized by ''

'' magazine. He won first prize for the best two-family dwelling. In a recent biography of the architect, the

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before state ...

described the building: :At first glance, simple rectangles in a craftsman vein, they pierce the skyline with a succession of minutely scaled triangles and rectangles – a sort of Gothicism shorn of religious aspirations... four pilasters rise from a broad pedestal... One can always sense him looking for that one element of the building to put on center stage and wrap with scenic effects, whatever the dictates of the stylistic propriety.Taylor, D.V. (2002) ''Cap Wigington, An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone'', Minnesota Historical Society Press. p 28. The rowhouse's original owner was

Jack Broomfield Jack Broomfield (1865–1927) was an African-American community activist and political leader in Omaha, Nebraska in the early 20th century. About After Dr. Matthew Ricketts left Omaha in 1903, Jack Broomfield stepped into the position of the poli ...

, a key African-American political leader during the reign of Tom Dennison, informal political boss in the city. According to the Omaha preservation organization Landmarks, Inc., the Broomfield Rowhouse was selected for the Register under the following criteria: :Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of a construction or represents the role of a master, or possesses a high artistic value, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.

References

{{North Omaha Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Omaha, Nebraska Omaha Landmarks Houses completed in 1913 Clarence W. Wigington buildings 1913 establishments in Nebraska

History

See also

References