Their shared appreciation for the finer things led them to open a mid-town high-end shop, The Afternoon the Omaha store by that name today has no relationship to the earlier store. In the business partners went on a buying trip to Chicago and discovered Old Town — a mix of quality shops in repurposed buildings.
He showed us the property. We wanted there to be a number of shops. He seemed very doubtful about our idea for a community of shops and restaurants. It made a good impression on Sam who then said that maybe what we were talking about would work.
Eventually he seemed to be coming around. He certainly had a great appreciation for old buildings and also a need to fill the empty places with new tenants.
Cedric and I had special interest in architectural history. I had started the drive to try to save the old Omaha City Hall from destruction, but when we met with Mayor A. Sorenson about it, he made it clear a serious goal of his and city fathers was to get rid of old buildings.
That conflict continued for years. The Market happened in spite of meek support and sometimes outright opposition from Omaha city government and business leadership.
The very idea of it flew in the face of conservative, parochial Omaha. Old buildings were razed with alarming frequency then. Aging inner city neighborhoods were neglected. The Great Suburban Boom was on and new was preferred to old. Downtown Omaha was already slipping and would soon find its once vibrant retail base gone. Hard as it may be to imagine now, the warehouses comprising the Market were mostly viewed as eyesores, not assets.
Hartman and Wigton saw things differently and their dogged pursuit of what to others seemed a pipe dream paid off. Kaneko says few realize how vital they were to the Market coming into being. Judy was enthused too. I was interested in seeing something happen downtown.
He says there was resignation nothing would really ever change. In Mercer Hartman and Wigton found the receptive audience they craved and someone in a position to do something about it.
We were both flabbergasted, dazzled by his personal style. We were taken with him and in his way he was with us. He was a kindred spirit in so many ways. With Mercer on board Wigton helped raise public awareness of the proposed redevelopment by hosting luncheons at the old Omaha Club where Mercer bent the ear of stakeholders and tastemakers.
I especially remember a lunch there with the late columnist Robert McMorris which seemed to result in dozens of favorable stories in the World-Herald. Another was with city planning director Alden Aust, whose advocacy became invaluable.
The initial businesses in the fledgling district opened in But even that anchor, signature eatery only happened because Hartman was in the right place at the right time. He spotted a condemnation notice posted on the Solomon Gilinsky Fruit Market building and contacted Mercer.
It was not a Mercer property, it belonged to the Gilinsky family. Mercer and Gilinsky made the deal but even then last minute fast talking was required because, Hartman says, Gilinsky had a contract with a wrecking firm to take the building down.
Demolition was set for the following morning. After some frantic calls the order was canceled. Hartman designed the space. He admires the chance Mercer took. Who knew if that would work? The idea was planted with Sam…And so it started this way — the idea, the saving of a structure, then the investment in the renovation and all the wonderful ideas and people that followed.
Each person added to the growth of the dream. They were the fiber of the place. They came to work here, they lived here, they ate here, they hung out here. They were neighbors…they were friends. It was very sophisticated and its image rubbed off on the rest of the Old Market.
And it generated traffic. Bonham-Cartern notes that the Market ultimately benefited from the family having meager development funds because it reinforced leaving the buildings largely alone, to retain their historic integrity.
The last thing the family wanted was to make the Market a glossy theme park whitewashed of age. And at that time the visual arts were the poor sister in town. So this was a big deal. She says despite a lack of creature comforts they felt impassioned. We felt we were doing something very important and very radical. We were saving this wonderful architecture and bringing new life to these discarded places.
We had nothing but our dreams and hard work and intense desire to make it happen. The whole venture was kind of an artwork really. Making something out of nothing — that was really the fun part. Some wholesalers were still operating. Cafes catered to truckers and railroaders. The railroad cars would go up and down the alleys at night where freight was loaded and unloaded. Mark developed V Mertz restaurant in the Passageway.
We pick things we think to rent to or to do ourselves that fit our tastes and our interests. They know it is a slow process, so if you come to them with a good idea and they believe it fits with their dream for the Old Market you could probably have a good chance at succeeding.
They have a great sense of the mix of things that need to happen to make the Market exciting. The Mercers made it very easy for interesting people to get a foothold here.
A lot of times the rent was negligible. You could give receipts for improvements in lieu of rent money, and it helped everybody. It helped people on a shoestring build something for themselves and the owners got improvements at no expense to them, so it was a win-win.
It was a nice formula. Rusty Harmsen did the Toad and Spaghetti Works. Then a little bit later we did the Passageway and V Mertz. There was a hunger too for a pedestrian area and arts and books and different kinds of movies that could combine. So it all seemed to get established in a couple-three years, although there were still problems with how to deal with building code inspectors. The more artists and creative people in your community from all walks of life, makes for a much better place to live.
Sam painted as a hobby. Underground newspapers were published there. Edgy film, theater and art happened there. The drug culture flourished there. Maybe a little more controversial and a little more avant garde. We are still looking for new things. Kaneko, who with her husband, artist Jun Kaneko, has developed an arts campus there says the district illustrates how the arts act as a catalyst for renewal.
A time of refinement. If we are lucky and if we are wise we will maintain the quality, respect and excitement that this urban area needs and this city deserves. Any urban place worth its salt as a destination to visit bears the imprint of the people who shaped it.
Many people have had a hand in molding the Old Market but the most critical guiding hand belonged to the late Sam Mercer, who had the vision to see what only a few others saw in terms of the potential of transforming this old produce warehouse market into a arts-culture-entertainment haven.
My story about Mercer and the small coterie of fellow visionaries he developed a consipiracy of hearts with in creating the Old Market appears in Encouner Magazine. I will introduce you to the people who turned the spark of an idea into reality. He was Services were held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Omaha. This continental bon vivant was not a typical Nebraskan. The son of prominent Omaha physician and landowner Nelson Mercer, he was born and raised in privileged circumstances in London, England and educated at Oxford and Yale.
After living in Washington D. He held dual citizenship. In Paris he cultivated relationships with avant garde artists, A watercolorist himself, he made artist Eva Aeppli his second wife. On his handful of trips to Omaha each year he cut an indelible figure between his shock of shoulder-length gray hair, his Trans-Atlantic accent and his waxing on far-ranging subjects.
He spoke perfect French. He appreciated the century-old brick warehouses, some Mercer-owned, comprising the wholesale produce market just southeast of downtown. But it was someone his junior, designer Cedric Hartman, who first advocated doing something with those buildings, which by the mids were largely abandoned and in disrepair. Hartman, an acclaimed designer of lighting and furniture pieces made at his Marcy St.
He and Judy Wigton were partners in a high end gift shop. We were both wowed by him and in his way he was with us. Those early encounters formulated the vision for what became the Old Market. He hooked into all this stuff really fast. A sense of urgency set in when city officials and property owners began eying some Market buildings for demolition.
Hartman tipped off Mercer to the condemnation of the Gilinsky building that sat in the middle of Mercer-owned properties on Howard Street. It was Hartman too who brokered a meeting between Mercer and Peaches Gilinsky. A deal was struck that led Mercer to acquire the site. By Mercer moved strategically to gain control of a collection of buildings there. However, it was a great success. Designers duRand and Hartman advised Mercer and his son Mark, daughter-in-law Vera, nephew Nicholas Bonham-Carter on this never planned but organically developed area.
He made frequent visits to Omaha in the early days, and was instrumental in bringing the city fathers around to acceptance, then eventual approval, and finally enthusiasm for the preservation and rebirth of our neighborhood. Sam Mercer viewed the Market as an evolving social experiment and art project aligned with his own desires. They vow retaining the vibrant charm of this historic neighborhood he lovingly made happen.
The late 19th and early 20th century warehouses that now are home to shops, restaurants, galleries, and condos might easily have been lost to the wrecking ball if not for visionaries and pioneers like Roger duRand, a designer who took a firm hand in becoming a creative stakeholder there.
This short profile of duRand for Encounter Magazine provides some insight into the forces that helped shape the Old Market in the face of certain obstacles. Old Market Pioneer Roger duRand. His imprint on this historic urban residential-commercial environment is everywhere.
He once directed the Gallery at the Market. For decades he made his home and office in the Old Market. The Omaha native goes back to the very start when the Old Market lacked a name and identity. It consisted of old, abandoned warehouses full of broken windows, and pigeon and bat droppings.
City leaders saw no future for the buildings and planned tearing them down. Only a few visionaries like duRand saw their potential. The son had resettled in Omaha after cross-country road trips to connect with the burgeoning counter-culture movement, working odd jobs to support himself, from fry cook to folk singer to sign painter to construction worker.
He even shot pool for money. A friend, Percy Roche, who had a British import store nearby, told them about the Old Market buildings owned by the Mercer family. The buildings all had a relationship with each other, they were all of the same general age, they were all designed in a very unselfconsciously commercial style.
There were produce brokerage offices in some of the upper floors. There were a couple cafes that catered to the truck drivers and railroad guys.
There was a lot of jobbing, with suppliers of all kinds of mechanical stuff — heating and cooling, plumbing and industrial supplies. The railroad cars would go up and down the alleys at night for freight to be loaded and unloaded. This was going to be the end of civilization as they knew it if they allowed hippies to get a foothold. It was quite a struggle the first few years. Entertaining Neighborhoods. Free Things To Do. Outdoor Recreation. Old Market. Things to Do with Kids. Events Annual Events.
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Virtual Events. If I'm ever back in Omaha, I will definitely revisit this area. Connector Atlanta, GA 1 contribution. The Old Market has excellent restaurants and shops that give Omaha an ecclectic The shops had all kinds of items unique to Omaha and the setting was just lovely. If you're in Omaha, check it out. TravelBeyond40 Topeka, Kansas 59 contributions.
Marketplace in Omaha has great varity! I love visiting Old Town when we go to Omaha for the zoo. It really is a beautiful place with a cross between New Orleans style and Italian style architecture. There are flowers on the rooftops that hang down and potted plants along the sidewalks. The brick streets remind one of yesteryears.
There is a lot of art around the marketplace and a lot of wonderful shops of varied interests. A great mix of eateries, including an Irish Pub and Restaurant, a local brewery with amazing home made breads that you can purchase and take home with you, this is a MUST try! And a French restaurant as well. Some of the shops have odd hours it seems but overall you can always find a great place. There is a walkway in the middle of the marketplace with shops inside and wonderful foliage for great photo opps!
The marketplace is also local to many other wonderful places to visit in the area. I live 3 hours from Omaha and this is a wonderful place for us to take a day trip.
Also check out Henry Doorley Zoo. Between the zoo and the marketplace this makes for a great weekend trip or a good place to stay along your route to another state! Jet Sioux City, IA 1 contribution. Abbielove Omaha, NE 18 contributions.
I feel like it's really gone down hill the last few years. I don't feel safe down there anymore and would never take my children down there alone. It's really say considering how nice the shops and restaurants are down there. AlexanderDelarge Omaha, NE contributions. A great place to spend an evening I love the Old Market as it offers a wide variety of activities. There are many dining options with good food and adult entertainment for those looking for some night life.
You can walk around Con Agra Park and take it the views of the downtown area. The summer evenings are my favorite time to visit the Old Market. Make sure you hit up Ted and Wally's Ice Cream but if it is a Friday or Saturday be prepared to wait in a line that goes out the door.
I grew up across the river in Iowa and make it back to Omaha a few times every year. My boyfriend always has anticipation about coming back, mainly because of the Old Market and the nearby casinos. The Old Market is settled near the Missouri river and its features include a sprinkling of boutiques, unique little shops, and restaurants, many with outdoor eating areas which are sometimes hard to come by in the Midwest. Homer's is a must-see for any music lover, Ted and Wally's for ice cream.
Once you're done walking around the historic brick streets, make your way east to the Heartland of America park. The Old Market is the perfect place for your Friday night dinner and walk - a very romantic place to go. Also cool to go for coffee on any given morning. One piece of advice: be careful of parking on weekend nights. Settle for a parking spot somewhere a bit further west - the walk is not horrible. Not too shabby. Storyteller Montezuma, iA 1 contribution.
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