Nebraska Deco.
This post will take us to some very fine art deco architecture in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska.
I had heard beforehand about the Tulsa, Oklahoma, art deco, featured in a couple of posts from the Route 66 portion of this Epic US Road Trip of 2017. I was prepared for the stop there with a decent amount of advance reading done. As to the Nebraska art deco, well, it was (almost) totally unexpected. I say “almost” because I had read about the capitol building in Lincoln. Otherwise, the deco in Lincoln, Omaha and elsewhere was a great (and welcome) surprise.
There was a bit of it on the drive to Lincoln; I have already posted some pix of the Grand Theater and Kensinger’s Service and Supply gas station in Grand Island (by way of example). That was just a warm-up, as it turned out.
Before we cross over to Iowa and the Mississippi – the final destination of this road trip blog (back to where I got on Route 66 at the beginning of the drive) — here is the last bit of Nebraska, namely its very impressive art deco:
-We’ll start out at the Nebraska Capitol in Lincoln, constructed in four phases during the years from 1922-1932. The incredible tile and mosaic work is by Hildreth Meière. (In New York, she did the extraordinary interior work at Temple Emanuel, St. Bartholomew’s and the former AT&T Long Lines Headquarters building, as well as the art deco plaques on the exterior wall of Radio City Music Hall, among other things.)
-Next, the very clean lines of a handsome building from very late in the deco period, the Mutual of Omaha building in Omaha (1940)
-the monumental (and very impressive) Joslyn Memorial Art Museum, built 1928-1931. Read more about the building here.
-a representative grouping of deco buildings in Lincoln and Omaha
-the former Union Station (also known as Union Passenger Terminal), 1929-31, which has been called one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the Midwest. It is now the home of the Durham Museum. The murals are in what was once the station dining room.
-the very last photo is another historic former railway station, the Burlington Station, which was extensively redesigned and updated in the deco period, although it was originally opened in 1898. It was quite a 1930s makeover: read more here. It, too, has been saved and repurposed, and it is now being used as a media center; it houses KETV, the Omaha ABC affiliate. Hats off to Omaha for the rescue of both Burlington and Union Stations!
