Published February 27, 2025 | Updated May 11, 2026

The Cornish Mansion sits in an area that was the city’s original Gold Coast, located south of downtown along 10th Street. Its architectural style is so rare in Omaha that it is easily one of the city’s most recognizable residences.

That residence belonged to Colonel Joel Northrup Cornish, a man whose American roots run remarkably deep. Not only was he commissioned as a colonel by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, but his grandfather fought against the British in the Revolutionary War. Going back even further, the family’s lineage traces to Thomas Clark, the mate of the Mayflower.

Born in New York in 1828, Colonel Cornish worked as a teacher and principal before completing law school. Afterward, he moved to Iowa, where he established one of the area’s largest law firms. Eventually, trouble with his eyesight forced him to abandon his law practice and enter the banking industry. He first established the First National Bank of Hamburg before moving to Omaha and becoming president of the National Bank of Commerce.

Colonel Cornish acquired a prime piece of real estate at the southwest corner of 10th and William Streets to build a home for his family. The property was located in the Forest Hills neighborhood, which proved popular with wealthy professionals and business owners because it was removed from the noise, mud, and pollution of the downtown business district. The area earned its reputation as the city’s first Gold Coast, as it was home to 28 mansions.

Built in 1886, the Cornish Mansion was designed by architect Styles Ezra Maxon of Council Bluffs in the Second Empire style, a reflection of the colonel’s East Coast roots, where this type of home was more common.

The exterior of the red brick structure stood out because of its slate mansard roof, round-topped dormer windows, and elaborate moldings beneath the roof’s eaves. Flanking each side of the front porch were two towers with a central cupola, while the porch on the south side featured Eastlake woodwork.

Within the walls of the Cornish Mansion, an imposing three-and-a-half-story structure, were 13-foot ceilings, parquet wood floors, 15-rooms, and four fireplaces. The floor had included a parlor, dining room, an upstairs kitchen while another was located in the basement and used for meal preparation. Its grand staircase led to the second floor where each member of the family had a private sitting porch. Perhaps most impressive was its third-floor ballroom which, according to legend, hosted a young Henry Fonda, the Omaha-born actor who got his start at the Omaha Community Playhouse in 1925.

Located at 1404 S. 10th Street, the Cornish Mansion remained in the family for the next 70 years. Following the deaths of both parents by 1908, the estate was divided equally among their four children, with the residence going to Edward Cornish. A lawyer at the Carter White Lead Company, Edward became its president following the death of Levi Carter, at which point he moved to Chicago, where the company’s headquarters were located.

With none of the children residing in the Cornish Mansion on a permanent basis, Edward chose to convert it into luxury apartments. In the process, he added an annex on the northwest side and established a separate entrance for each unit. The apartments each had four or five bedrooms with a private bath and porch, as well as access to a barn for automobiles.

The building remained in the hands of the Cornish family even after Edward’s death in 1938. By that time, it belonged to the children of his brother Albert, who served as a justice on the Nebraska Supreme Court in Lincoln. After the family opted to let it go 70 years after Colonel Cornish built it, the property was purchased by Grace Bible Institute, later named Grace University, which used it as apartments for married students.

By the early 1990s, Arnie Breslow purchased the building and began a painstaking restoration process alongside partner Gina Basile. One of the more controversial decisions among neighbors was returning the roof to its original color. While there have been changes to the exterior over the years, including the removal of the wrought iron crown along the roof and the addition of the annex, the building largely resembles the mansion Colonel Cornish built 140 years ago. The interior, despite being subdivided, retained many of its original details. After a fire caused more than half a million dollars in damage to the upper floors in 2021, the building was renovated once again and reopened to tenants in 2023.

The former Cornish Mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and designated an Omaha Landmark in 2017, is one of the very few original mansions that remain in the Forest Hills neighborhood. Described as “one of the few grand houses of Omaha still standing,” it was featured in Landmarks, Inc. Omaha City Architecture in 1977 and in Jeffrey Spencer’s Building for the Ages: Omaha’s Architectural Landmarks in 2003.

Having survived threats of demolition, the house that Cornish built remains perhaps the best and rarest example of a Second Empire-style residence in Omaha. Equally impressive is the family that built it and called it home for generations.

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More pictures

The damaged caused by the fire in 2021. Photos courtesy of Old Omaha Real Estate.

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• Joel N. Cornish House – Wikipedia
• Lady in Waiting: Historic Cornish Mansion Reborn from the Ashes – Omaha Magazine
• Restoring the Cornish Mansion – Old Omaha
• Cornish, Colonel Joel N., Residence – Omaha Heritage Preservation
• The History and Genealogy of the Cornish Families in America