The Broomfield Rowhouse is located at 2502-2504 Lake Street in the Near North Side neighborhood

Near North Side (Omaha, Nebraska)

The Near North Side of Omaha, Nebraska is the neighborhood immediately north of downtown. It forms the nucleus of the city's African-American community, and its name is often synonymous with the entire North Omaha area...

 of Omaha

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

, Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

. It was designed by African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Clarence W. Wigington

Clarence W. Wigington

Clarence Wesley "Cap" Wigington was an African-American architect who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. After winning three first prizes in charcoal, pencil, and pen and ink at an art competition during the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1899, Wigington went on to become a renowned architect across...

, who was later regarded as a master in his field. His design for the house won a 1909 Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...

competition. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

History

This historic rowhouse was built in the wake of the Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913 which ravaged Midtown

Midtown Omaha

Midtown is a geographic area of Omaha, Nebraska that is a culturally, socially and economically important area of the city. It is home to major research centers, national corporations, several historic districts, and a number of historic residences.-About:...

 and North Omaha. The building was designed by Clarence W. Wigington

Clarence W. Wigington

Clarence Wesley "Cap" Wigington was an African-American architect who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. After winning three first prizes in charcoal, pencil, and pen and ink at an art competition during the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1899, Wigington went on to become a renowned architect across...

, a well-known African American architect raised in Omaha. The influence of Wigington's mentor, Thomas R. Kimball, is evident throughout the design of the structure. Wigington originally designed the building in 1909 for a contest organized by Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...

magazine. He won first prize for the best two-family dwelling.

In a recent biography of the architect, the Minnesota Historical Society

Minnesota Historical Society

The Minnesota Historical Society is a private, non-profit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota...

 described the building:

At first glance, simple rectangles in a craftsman vein, they pierce the skyline with a succession of minutely scaled triangles and rectangles – a sort of Gothicism shorn of religious aspirations... four pilasters rise from a broad pedestal... One can always sense him looking for that one element of the building to put on center stage and wrap with scenic effects, whatever the dictates of the stylistic propriety.

The rowhouse's original owner was Jack Broomfield

Jack Broomfield

Jack Broomfield was a leader of the African American community in Omaha, Nebraska in the early 20th century.-About:After Dr. Matthew Ricketts left Omaha in 1903, Jack Broomfield stepped into the position of the political leader of Omaha's African American community. Broomfield was an ex-Pullman...

, a key African-American political leader during the reign of Tom Dennison

Tom Dennison (political boss)

Tom Dennison, aka Pickhandle, Old Grey Wolf, was the early-20th century political boss of Omaha, Nebraska. A politically savvy, culturally astute gambler, Dennison was in charge of the city's wide crime rings, including prostitution, gambling and bootlegging in the 1920s...

, informal political boss in the city.

According to the Omaha preservation organization Landmarks, Inc., the Broomfield Rowhouse was selected for the Register under the following criteria:

Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of a construction or represents the role of a master, or possesses a high artistic value, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.