Omaha Exploration

Located at 10th and Mason St, the Burlington Mail Terminal was designed by architect W. T. Krausch and built in 1926. Built in a Daylight Factory Style that was popular in the early 20th century, the triangular structure was five stories tall and consisted of 96,000 sq ft. It was built so that the Burlington Railroad could secure a contract to deliver mail by train for the United States Postal Service. The Burlington Train Station was built on the other side of 10th Street in 1898.

The building had train tracks that ran through the lower level allowing mail to be unloaded. It also had catwalks so that postal inspectors could keep an eye on the employees that were processing the mail down below. Those same inspectors used an enclosed brick staircase allowing them to move from floor to floor without being noticed. The most visible aspect of the building from the outside other than its shape were the large windows on all four sides. 

Even with the construction of a new main post office to the west, the mail terminal building continued to operate as a mail sorting facility until 1972. After that most bulk mail was being handled through a new train service that delivered mail from Chicago to Oakland 50 hours later. This building continued to serve as a storage facility for the warehouse due to the usefulness of the conveyor belt system that took mail back-and-forth to the new post office. The building was vacated by the mid-1990’s. In 2007 an out-of-town developer unsuccessfully planned to turn the building into 71 luxury apartments. 

The old mail terminal spent half its life crumbling under the stress of neglect and disuse until it was purchased and renovated in 2015. It was one of the largest historic tax credit projects in the state. The renovated building was renamed as the Rail & Commerce Building when it reopened in 2017. The name was inspired by the historic Rail and Commerce District in which it is located. The 19-block area included large-scale commercial development along the tracks and downtown from 10th to 15th Streets. The district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.  

When an announcement was made that the building would be renovated, the developer said that it wanted to take an old building and make it new while preserving what they could. The renovated building includes modern amenities, conference rooms, open and natural lighted work areas and a fitness center in addition to game and break rooms. In a past-present metaphor, a postal chute that was once used to drop mail to lower levels had a hole cut into it allowing people to pass through it. The large windows allow light to pour in while providing unique views of the surrounding area. It strives for zero waste and is carbon neutral and sustainable with rooftop solar panels.

The ground floor is open to startups and entrepreneurs and offers the opportunity to rent desks and office suites. The rest of the building serves as offices to Boyd Jones Construction, Warren Distribution and others. On street level facing 10th is Café Postale which opened in 2021. The coffee shop offers both breakfast and lunch items. In the evening the space transforms into a unique event space for weddings, corporate events and the like. Like the rest of the building, the cafe and event center has large windows allowing for an abundance of natural light in addition to an outdoor patio space. It even allows customers to see the observation areas where inspectors once monitored the mail processing below. 

Opened in 2016, the Rail & Commerce building sits along a revitalized 10th Street corridor that also includes new businesses such as Saro Cider and Sips on 10th as well as the old Union Station turned-Durham Museum and the old Burlington Station-turned KETV.

Please feel free to comment and share your memories. Thank you for following along as I explore Omaha and the surrounding area!

Bonus pics

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