Bensonhurst Neighborhood Tour

Description

October 12-13, 2019 10 to 3 p.m. The tour occurs rain or shine. 10 Homes in the Bensonhurst Neighborhood will be open for interior and backyard tours. Tickets: $20, discount for REO Members Purchase Tickets online www.restorationexchange.org or each tour day at the Registration Site. The 2019 historic home tour is Restoration Exchange Omaha 15th Annual Neighborhood Tour. It offers the public opportunities to visit this eclectic neighborhood of restored, preserved and renovated homes along with amazing backyards, including a nature preserve. The tour will be walkable and bikeable, but a shuttle will be provided from the Registration Site located at the Historic St. James Orphanage. St. James' Orphanage was the first home established in Nebraska for the care of dependent, neglected or orphaned children on 60th and Military. Now it currently occupied by the Archdiocese of Omaha Sheehan Retreat Center, 3300 North 60th Street (St. Joseph’s Hall). Neighborhood History John H. Creighton was the original owner of the land that is now known as Bensonhurst. His farm covered several thousand acres. Contrary to some reporting however, he was not the developer of the Bensonhurst lots. The property changed hands through the years, eventually being purchased by Imogen A. Benson in 1904. She and her husband Erastus A. Benson along with the Elsinore Place Company replatted the land in 1905 creating Bensonhurst, an addition to the Village of Benson. Mr. Benson, interested in creating a uniformed suburban environment for his subdivision on North 58th Street, created restrictive covenants that required only residential construction with a minimum setback to the street of 30 feet for all the homes. He also required that each home cost no less than $2,500 to ensure quality construction. Charles D. Creighton was among the first to build in the subdivision on three lots on the west side (2916 N 58th Street). The lots were marketed as attractive to buyers for their proximity to the trolley line, for having large lots measuring 63 feet by 226 feet long (very deep by normal standards), a paved street with permanent walks on both sides, and for the huge stone columns marked the entrance. Two of these columns are still visible on the southern end of the block today.