The Blackstone Hotel is a historic hotel located at 302 South 36th Street in the Blackstone neighborhood of the Midtown area in

Omaha, Nebraska 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 cit ...

. Built in 1915, it was declared an

Omaha Landmark This article covers Omaha Landmarks designated by the City of Omaha Landmark Heritage Preservation Commission. In addition, it includes structures or buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and those few designated as Nation ...

in 1983 and 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 ...

in 1985.

About

The Blackstone was built by the Bankers Realty Investment Company as a

residential hotel An apartment hotel or aparthotel (also residential hotel, or extended-stay hotel) is a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel-style booking system. It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can "check ...

in 1915. Residents generally rented by the year rather than the day and received hotel services. Although there were single room units, most were suites with six to eight rooms. Each floor had four glass sunrooms and ornate furnishings throughout. In 1920, the building was purchased by Charles Schimmel, an immigrant from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. After converting the Blackstone to a regular hotel, it soon became a "symbol of elegance" and gained a high stature nationwide as the premier hotel between Chicago and San Francisco along the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

. Among its amenities, the hotel published its own magazine, ''The Blackstonian,'' and kept a small fleet of

Pierce-Arrow The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was an American motor vehicle manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York, which was active from 1901 to 1938. Although best known for its expensive luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow also manufactured commercial trucks ...

limousines A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...

for visiting dignitaries who arrived in Omaha by

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

. There were also a ballroom, rooftop

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s, and award-winning restaurants. The Orleans Room was the Blackstone's most famous restaurant; it received ''Holiday Magazines "Award for Excellence" for 16 straight years."Blackstone Hotel"
, Omaha Public Schools. Retrieved 2020-04-03. Through the 1970s the building was one of the most successful elegant small hotels in the country. In 1968, the Radisson Hotel Corporation bought the hotel and operated it until 1976. The Blackstone was renovated for use as offices in 1984 and renamed the Blackstone Center. In September 2007,

Kiewit Corporation Kiewit Corporation is an American privately held construction company based in Omaha, Nebraska founded in 1884. In 2021, it was ranked 243rd on the Fortune 500. Privately held, it is one of the largest construction and engineering organizations ...

, one of five Fortune 500 companies based in Omaha, bought the Blackstone. Kiewit sold the property in 2017 to local investors Clarity Development Co. and Green Slate Development, who restored it as a luxury hotel, at a cost of $75 million. It opened in November 2020 as the Kimpton Cottonwood Hotel. The original name can no longer be used due to legal issues.

Construction

Built on a steel frame, the building is covered in brick with

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

detailing.

Legacy

The

Reuben sandwich The Reuben sandwich is a North American grilled sandwich composed of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing or Russian dressing, grilled between slices of rye bread. It is associated with kosher-style delicatessens ...

was likely invented in Omaha by Reuben Kulakofsky. According to one version of the sandwich's disputed history, it was first introduced to the world in 1925 on a menu in one of the Blackstone's restaurants.(nd
History of the Reuben Sandwich
What's Cooking America? website. Retrieved 6/9/07 Butter brickle

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

was also first introduced to the world at the Blackstone.

References

{{NRHP Omaha Hotel buildings completed in 1915 Omaha Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in Omaha, Nebraska Defunct hotels in Omaha, Nebraska 1915 establishments in Nebraska History of Midtown Omaha, Nebraska Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska