Historic Omaha

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Top, left: One of the first commercial
theatrical venues in Omaha was Boyd’s
Opera House on the northeast corner of
Fifteenth and Farnam, which opened
October 24, 1881. James E. Boyd, the
theater’s proprietor, would later become
governor of Nebraska.
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
Top, right: Boyd’s Theater opened in 1870
at the corner of Fifteenth and Farnam.
By 1903 it was being operated by a
franchisee from Kansas City. Each
production on the bill had a short synopsis
surrounded by advertising.
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.
HISTORIC OMAHA
34
Streets were paved, waterworks installed
and new buildings, including the city’s first
real post office, sprang up. Boyd’s Opera
House opened in 1881 and hosted traveling
theatrical troupes and musical ensembles. The
famed Irish wit, Oscar Wilde, played to a
sold-out audience here on March 21, 1882.
Hotels like the Millard and Barker emerged,
along with a number of banks—the Millard,
United States, Merchant, and others. Business
blocks, churches of varying denominations,
and a central library gave the young city an
urban look. Still, Omaha had trouble
convincing easterners of its improved status.
Too often the lyrics of an 1869 ditty which
appeared in Harper’s Magazine characterized
the city to outsiders:
Hast ever been in Omaha
Where rolls the dark Missouri down,
Where four strong horses scarce can draw
An empty wagon through the town?
Where sand is blown from every mound
To fill your eyes and ears and throat
Where all the steamboats are aground
And all the houses are afloat?
This critical poet, John G. Saxe, advised
readers that, if Omaha ever lay in their way,
“For God’s sake…go around it!”
More than a little peeved at this sort of
doggerel and the reputation it continued to
provoke, Omaha’s business leaders took a more
active role in countering such propaganda. A
Commercial Club (which became the Omaha
Chamber of Commerce in 1918) was founded
to unite and promote economic interests, and
in 1895, the Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben was created
to foster patriotism and civic pride.
But the crowning achievement, the
statement city fathers hoped would entitle
Omaha to take its rightful place among
the leading communities of the West, was
the selection of Nebraska’s largest town as
the site of the Trans-Mississippi and
International Exposition.
Three years earlier, at the 1895 Trans-
Mississippi Congress, Omaha Bee editor
and publisher Edward Rosewater successfully
lobbied for the hometown locale. The Ak-
Sar-Ben board and other business leaders, who
were anxious to showcase their city
and to match their efforts favorably against the
Chicago exposition of 1893, supported his bid.
Funds for this extravaganza were solicited
from Congress, the State of Nebraska, Omaha