History, including rumored role in illicit bootlegging operation, inspire effort to save old Omaha home

As far as 157-year-old houses in Omaha go, Tim Reeder admits his isn’t all that special.

Reeder knows the house is not Omaha’s oldest — that distinction, as far as local historians can tell, belongs to a one-story home that’s 10 years older. Reeder’s house is not even in its original location or its original condition.

In fact, it was practically uninhabitable — save for the raccoons that called it home — when Reeder purchased it for $75,000 in 2024. 

So why buy it? He answers in stories: its origins as a home for military officers; its rescue by two bachelor brothers who uprooted the house and moved it to the current location; its rumored role in the bootlegging days of Prohibition; its envisioned future as a community hub and place to celebrate Omaha’s history. 

“I have so many questions about it,” said Reeder, a real estate agent and president of the nonprofit Preserve Omaha. “I’m going to take my time, while we preserve this house, in finding the answers.”

Reeder calls the two-story house the Omaha History Farm. Nearly 160 years ago, it was known simply as Building No. 15.

Built in 1869, the house was one of 12 identical duplexes constructed on a hill overlooking the parade grounds at the new Fort Omaha. When Gen. George Crook assumed command of Fort Omaha 10 years later, he ordered the wood-framed houses on Officer’s Row be replaced with ones made of brick.

“To say the least, they were magnificent,” Omaha historian Adam Fletcher Sasse said of the original houses. “They had character. They were part of our history.”

They also were expendable, and Reeder’s house likely is the only one remaining of the 12. Their brick replacements took nearly 20 years to build. Building No. 15 was 31 years old and in rough shape when brothers William and Oliver Glenville bought it for $150. 

The Glenvilles moved their new home — in two pieces — to its current location at 6327 Florence Blvd. “Back then, believe it or not, moving a house was much easier,” Reeder said. 

When one of the brothers married, the other didn’t move out. He simply relocated to the basement.

The Glenvilles decided they didn’t want a boulevard at the end of their extended front yard, so they plowed it over and planted berries. 

“Why would they want fruit?” Reeder asked. “Maybe because they were making moonshine?”

The berries are not the only potential evidence of the rumored illegal distillery. A single metal pipe that sticks out several inches from the ground in the sloping backyard could be proof of the long-told local legend. 

As the story goes, Reeder said, rather than have the brothers remove or dismantle the illegal distillery, law enforcement had the two simply bury it. 

If the legend is true, Reeder plans to unearth the distillery, as well as the supposed tunnels leading to his home that he suspects were part of a network created by an Omaha gangster.

But for now, those dreams will have to wait. The house was completely in disrepair when Reeder bought it. The most recent owner couldn’t keep up with maintenance, he said. 

Water damage was evident throughout the house, resulting in a radiator falling through the main floor to the basement below.

One of Reeder’s first tasks after buying the house was to clear the debris littering the property, repair the roof and patch the many holes and cracks in its walls and foundation.

“A family of raccoons had taken up residence in the home’s walls,” he said. “They’ve been evicted.”

Reeder approached the home’s owner two years ago and asked about her intentions for the house. She initially declined his offer to help preserve it and later accepted his offer to buy it. “I promised her I would preserve it. And I am keeping that promise.” 

Reeder explained that there’s a difference between preserving a house and restoring one. Restoring a house, he said, means keeping it as it was. Preserving one, he said, means retaining the look of its era, but having flexibility to instill his personality in the house and not be held to one specific period. The house also gives Preserve Omaha a visible presence and project — one that he hopes will provide the organization with a calling card.

For Reeder, this means incorporating pieces given to him or bought at auction — the bookshelves in the library came from a home in Field Club; the tin ceiling in the dining room and two first-floor bedrooms came from a furniture store in downtown Omaha.

Reeder continues his preservation work one room, one project at a time. The main floor bathroom is finished, but now features a bathtub rescued from the barn. The original tub is part of an upstairs bathroom.

Reeder plans to eventually seek donors to support Omaha History Farm, a nonprofit. He has no plans to live in the house. Instead, he envisions the home as a gathering place for lectures on Omaha’s history and for concerts and other outdoor activities. 

All will take time, he said. And all the while, he’ll continue to explore where his house resides on Omaha’s list of oldest. 

Cataloging old houses is challenging, said Tom Neal, executive director of the Douglas County Historical Society. “Old records are sometimes hard to trust.”

Neal, Fletcher Sasse and Shelley McCafferty, the historic preservation administrator for the City of Omaha, agree that, for now, a home near North 31st and Clay streets is the oldest documented house in Omaha. 

“I can’t say with 100% accuracy that it’s the oldest in Omaha, but it’s definitely the oldest one we can find and document,” Neal said. He recently learned of a house in Bennington that dates to 1864. A house near South 132nd and Millard avenues dates to 1867, according to McCafferty. 

Determining a pecking order for Omaha’s oldest is challenging because county assessors’ records, which are the standard for tracking a building’s age, aren’t always accurate. Those without a date default to 1900. And some records don’t indicate whether the house is original or has been replaced by another at the same location.

It doesn’t matter to Reeder where his house falls on the list.

“I know it’s not the oldest,” he said. “It may turn out to be the 15th-oldest. The fun is finding out.”