The old unassuming building at 4469 Farnam Street was razed as a part of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s expansion on the west side of Saddle Creek Road. Built in 1927 for Rex Baking, the company produced 100,000 loaves of bread each day. Founded in 1922, Rex was acquired by General Baking Company in 1928, at which point they began baking Bond Bread.
The packaging on Bond’s bread included every ingredient to put the customer’s mind at ease that only the purest and finest ingredients were used. The brand was developed in 1915 when General Baking president William Deininger held a national recipe contest, soliciting housewives for their best bread recipes after learning the company’s existing “Superior Bread” contained 65 substitute ingredients. He received more than 45,000 responses. Over time the company began going by the name Bond Bakery and continued to operate out of this building until around 1949.
Roberts Dairy bought the building in 1951 for $200,000 and remodeled the second floor for its offices. By the mid-1950s, it was the home to United States Rubber Company which occupied the first floor and the basement until 1955.
Omaha School District leased the building from Roberts for $30,000 per year starting in 1969. It was originally used for computer services and vocational education programs. Assistant Superintendent Edwin Parrish moved his offices to the building from Joslyn Castle. It was called the Area Educational Data Processing Center and included classrooms for trainable mentally handicapped children, children with learning disabilities, and drug education.
By the early 1970s it had become OPS administrative offices and offered courses in conjunction with Omaha Nebraska Technical College, which would eventually become Metropolitan Community College. When the district moved to the old Technical High School on 30th and Cuming streets in 1989, they attempted to sell this building. After failing to receive an adequate offer, they instead opted to retain the building and use it to store supplies and equipment. The upper floors were converted into Parrish Alternative School for high school students with mental illness and behavioral problems in 1992.
Eyeing its future expansion, the University of Nebraska Medical Center to the east began purchasing lots to the west of Saddle Creek Road in the late 1990s. Slowly acquiring lots over time, it bought the Parrish Alternative School property in 2017.
The university broke ground on its new CORE building on this site in 2023. Located near the Catalyst building, it will serve as the cornerstone of the university’s west campus. Designed to accommodate a pedestrian bridge above Saddle Creek Road, the building will be a research center aimed at product and drug collaboration. This property, once on the western fringes of Omaha, has seen a lot over its 96 years of life.
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Until next time, keep exploring!
Sources
- Omaha World-Herald archives
- UNMC’s CORE building starts to go vertical | Newsroom | University of Nebraska Medical Center
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