Omaha Exploration

One of Omaha’s most recognizable residences belonged to Colonel Joel Northrup Cornish, a man whose grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War and who was later commissioned as a colonel by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

Born in New York in 1828, he worked as a teacher and principal while attending law school. Before landing in Omaha, he settled in Iowa where he established one of the area’s largest law firms.

Trouble with his eyesight caused Colonel Cornish to abandon his law practice and enter banking with the establishment of the First National Bank of Hamburg in 1877. It was only after his son Edward moved to Omaha that the colonel followed suit and joined the National Bank of Commerce, eventually becoming its president.

He acquired a prime parcel of land in Forest Hills, which had the distinction of being Omaha’s first Gold Coast, an area where wealthy professionals and business owners built their mansions and other large homes away from the noise, mud, and pollution downtown.

The colonel hired Council Bluffs architect Styles Ezra (S.E.) Maxon to design what would become one of 28 mansions in the area. Built in 1886, the structure located at 1404 S. 10th Street was designed in the Second Empire-style, a reflection of its owner’s East Coast roots where it was more common.

The exterior of the red brick structure stood out due to 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-style woodwork.

Inside the three-and-a-half-story, 15-room mansion were 13-foot ceilings, four fireplaces, parquet wood floors, and a grand staircase leading to the second floor, where each family member had their own private sitting porch adjacent to their bedroom. The third floor featured a ballroom that hosted many notable families, including that of Henry Fonda.

The Cornish family remained in the house for two decades. Following the death of Virginia Cornish in 1903 and her husband in 1908, the estate was divided equally among their four children, with the residence going to Edward. At the time, he was working as a lawyer for the Carter White Lead Company and later became its president after the passing of Levi Carter. Edward then 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 opted to convert it into luxury apartments. 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.

After Edward passed away in 1938, he left it to the children of his brother Albert, who lived in Lincoln while serving as a justice on the Nebraska Supreme Court. Edward’s niece, Virginia Cornish Fischer, sold the property in 1956. It was later purchased by Grace College of the Bible, whose campus was nearby. The college rented the apartments to married students and staff.

The college sold it in 1982, when Arnie Breslow, president of the Old Market South Neighborhood Association, purchased it. He and his longtime partner, Gina Basile of B & B Properties, began a painstaking restoration of the building that included restoring the original color of the roof. After a fire caused more than half a million dollars in damage to the upper floors in 2021, they renovated the building once again and reopened it to tenants in 2023.

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, has retained many of its original materials and details. In many cases, renovations repurposed original materials and ornamentation.

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

The Cornish Mansion is one of just five remaining mansions in Forest Hills. Included in Building for the Ages: Omaha’s Architectural Landmarks by Jeffrey Spencer, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 and designated an Omaha Landmark in 2017. Having survived repeated threats of demolition, it remains the best example of Second Empire architecture in Omaha.

Photos from the real estate listing on Zillow after the fire and renovation.

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