Published December 15, 2024 | Updated May 10, 2026

While the historic Blackstone District, once referred to as Omaha’s Gold Coast, has its share of bars, today we’ll look at the oldest: Sullivan’s Bar.

Opened in 1954, the bar pays tribute to John L. Sullivan, the famous bare-knuckle boxer who was recognized as the first heavyweight champion in 1882, but it’s actually named for its founder.

The grandson of Irish immigrants, Leo Sullivan was born in Omaha in 1916 and spent a couple of decades working for the Union Pacific Railroad. By 1950 he had worked his way up to crane foreman, but with the demanding nature of the job likely taking its toll, he pivoted to the bar business.

He opened his namesake bar in a space that was the longtime home to the West Farnam Hardware Store at 3926 Farnam Street. After the hardware store closed, the space was converted to a bar in 1940 by Phil Bessler. Grant Davis then operated his bar in the space until 1954.

Sullivan’s operated as a neighborhood bar in the once-swanky residential district that by the late 1940s had become known as funeral home row. By that time, many of the large residences had been converted to funeral homes or apartments. The bar would become a popular spot for those looking to partake in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. In 1964, three men were caught painting a 25-foot shamrock in front of the bar. When the police arrived to apprehend the men, they were booed by the crowd of spectators that had gathered on the street. In an attempt to hide the cans of green paint, a few friends took them inside Sullivan’s. After one of the cans tipped over, green footprints were tracked inside the bar, only to be discovered by the janitor the morning of St. Patrick’s Day.

I found it interesting that the following year, Leo hadn’t planned to do anything special. He claimed that the day wasn’t celebrated in the same manner as it had been in the past. He cited the lack of breweries making green beer and the difficulty in finding green ice cubes as a couple of his reasons. Either he got over it or the customers kept coming to Sullivan’s anyway. In 1969, the bar apparently ran out of beer by 9 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day.

Leo’s bar had become something of a St. Patrick’s Day institution over the years, but with his wife Eleanor having passed away two days after the celebration in 1978, Leo, it seems, didn’t have the heart to put on the event in 1979. He later sold the bar and passed away in 1983. Even so, its subsequent owners retained the Sullivan’s name and it continued to operate at the same location for another 30 years.

Longtime bartender Dan Houlihan took over Sullivan’s in 2001 when Farnam Street in the area of Blackstone was a one-way street designed to get people from the suburbs to downtown as quickly as possible. He saw the potential in not just the bar but the entire district. With its proximity to major employers and historic building stock, the historic district was ripe for a renaissance.

Houlihan took the opportunity to get in at the ground level when Blackstone began to take off in 2013. Rather than continuing to lease the space that had been the longtime home to Sullivan’s, he purchased the building across the street, which had more space and a better layout. The new building at 3929 Farnam Street had developed a reputation for creating problems in the neighborhood as the home to Shooters and Cheater’s Lounges.

After purchasing the 1946 building, he gutted the interior and hauled away 50 tons of debris. While remodeling it from the floor to the ceiling, he discovered long-hidden architectural features including arched windows, large picture windows, exposed brick, ceiling trusses and the original entryway. He uncovered these and incorporated them into the design, adding to the historic feel of the building. The renovation extended outside and included moving and restoring Sullivan’s iconic neon sign.

With the renovation completed, Houlihan added a 1930s-era imported bar and a restored shuffleboard table from the beloved 49’r Lounge, which had been closed a few years earlier. He was also responsible for adding wooden statues of John L. Sullivan, a Creighton baseball player and a Bugeater football player. He also turned the once-neglected space behind the building into a patio that serves as a nice refuge among the energetic hub that surrounds Sullivan’s. Houlihan sold the bar to former employees in 2024.

The bar that honors both boxing legend John L. Sullivan and its founder, Leo Sullivan, continues the legacy in Blackstone, where it remains the district’s original Irish bar and its oldest.

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Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• The Reader. Irish Tradition on the Move, 2013