Country Club Historic District

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The Country Club Historic District is located in Omaha, Nebraska from 50th to 56th Streets, from Corby to Seward Streets. With dozens of homes built between 1925 and 1949 in the late 19th And 20th Century Revival styles, the community was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.^[2]

[edit] About

According to the State of Nebraska, "the Country Club Historic District is significant as an early 20th century Omaha subdivision that was planned and marketed to attract homebuyers who expected an exceptionally high level of quality and consistency in neighborhood layout, amenities, home design, and environment. The district has a large concentration and variety of fine period revival houses, many of them designed by local architects."^[3]

The Country Club Historic District is located approximately 5 miles north and west of Omaha’s central business district and encompasses approximately 27 square blocks. The district is situated south of the Northwest Radial Highway on the east side of the Benson downtown and neighborhood. The district is bounded by the Northwest Radial Highway and Blondo Street between 52nd and 56th streets; Grant Street and Decatur Street between 51st and 52nd streets; and Blondo Street and Happy Hollow Boulevard between 50th and 51st streets. The Country Club Historic District is an early 20th century planned residential community of tree lined streets, decorative street lights and buildings that exhibit a variety of architectural styles. The majority of buildings are period revival style single family houses. The district also includes a Gothic Revival church, a modern style house and apartment complex, four 4-unit apartment buildings and several duplexes designed to be compatible with the single family houses. The primary building material in the district is brick. The street system is a combination of two types of streets – those that extend the city’s grid system and those that follow the rolling topography. The district contains 429 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site (Metcalfe Park), and 2 contributing structures (roadway system and street light system) for a total of 432 contributing resources. The district has very high integrity.

[edit] History

Construction in the district began shortly after the area was platted by the Metcalfe Company in 1926 and building continued through the 1940’s. All of the contributing buildings were completed by 1949. The single non-contributing building was constructed in 1954. Buildings classified as contributing resources were constructed during the period of significance, are representative of the period of significance stylistically and formally, and possess historic integrity.

[edit] Architecture

Distinctive features of the setting of the Country Club District include Metcalfe Park, curvilinear streets (Country Club Avenue seems to follow an existing creek bed that appears on the original golf course layout), a wide terrace between the sidewalk and street, and ornamental lighting. North 51st Street, Country Club Avenue, and Happy Hollow Boulevard bound Metcalfe Park, triangular in shape with trees and open space. Originally planned as residential lots, Metcalfe Park is platted as block 27 of the Country Club District on the city plat map. In 1929 the City of Omaha acquired block 27 to be to be used as part of the park and boulevard system.

The majority of the houses in the Country Club district have some connection to the Tudor style as it was used for residential architecture in the early 20th century. These houses range in the number of elements that they exhibit that are associated with the Tudor style. The elements of the Tudor vocabulary found most often on Country Club houses include: multiple gables and cross gables; imitation half-timber infilled with stucco or brick, or brick patterns that mimic half timber; four-centered, pointed arches; prominent chimneys placed as design features; metal and colored glass exterior light fixtures to illuminate entrances; leaded glass windows in diamond patterns used for decorative accents; stone used for trim, sometimes in regular patterns and sometimes mixed randomly in the brickwork; semi-hexagonal projecting bays; portions of second floors that overhang the first floor; and, battlements. Almost every Tudor style house in the Country Club district has one dominant, street-facing gable. Often there is a secondary gable and sometimes twin gables.

The degree to which Tudor style elements were applied to houses in the district varies considerably. On one end of the spectrum is a 1½-story house type that is quite common in the area and represents over 20% of the total structures in the district. It is referred here as the “swoop roof” type, because the roofline of its integral garage is a sweeping extension of the house’s primary front facing gable. Houses in the district of this type tend to look quite similar. Besides its gable roof forms, this type generally exhibits only a few Tudor features. These might include stone trim surrounding the entry, a metal and colored glass light and perhaps a diamond-paned window or a hint of half-timber.

[edit] See also

• Neighborhoods of Omaha, Nebraska

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• [www.historiccountryclub.com Historic County Club District] website