Omaha Exploration

At one time, an Omaha retail store was the largest between Chicago and San Francisco. It was started by Jonas L. Brandies, a native of Prague that was born in 1836 and immigrated to the U.S. when he was 20 years old.

A tanner by trade in his native country, he first settled in Wisconsin. The opening of the Manitowoc Clothing Store launched his retail career. Named for the town in which it was located along Lake Michigan and in between Milwaukee and Green Bay, he is reported to have traded with Native Americans.

While in Wisconsin, Jonas married Fannie Tewels and the two had four children: Arthur, Emil, Sarah and Hugo. Jonas saw opportunity in the growing city of Omaha which had the benefit of not only sitting along the Missouri River but also served as a hub for the railroad.

The Brandeis family relocated to Omaha in the 1880s. He employed his eldest, Arthur, to help him run his first store in town called The Fair on 13th between Howard and Jackson Streets. A shrewd businessman, Jonas employed a number of tactics to draw attention to his store. Among these were sidewalk sales, window displays that he kept lit up at night, packing a wagon full of marked down merchandise that he would ride throughout town and releasing a dozen balloons with coupons for free clothing each Saturday night.  

The success of the first store which also went by the name J.L. Brandeis & Son was too small on the day it opened. Soon after he opened a larger store at 16th and Douglas Streets. By this point his other two sons joined the family business which was renamed as J.L. Brandeis & Sons Boston Store.

The new store burned to the ground in 1894 at which point they built an even larger one to replace it. Around this time, the sons had assumed day-to-day responsibility allowing its founder to retire. Each had a specialty with Emil focused on expansion, Hugo on merchandising and Arthur as its president. They were joined by their cousin, George, who would leave Omaha and go onto manage a different Boston Store in Chicago.

While Jonas passed away in 1903 at the age of 66, the store didn’t miss a beat and was well on its way to becoming a force in the retail landscape well beyond Omaha. In 1905 the brothers embarked upon an ambitious project to build what would become one of the largest buildings in the city.

They hired prominent architect John Latenser Sr. to design an eight-story building in a Neo-Renaissance style. The facade was made of stone, brick and terra cotta in addition to ornamentation and window trim that differentiated each floor from the outside. Inside it featured ornate floor to ceiling columns. At first, the store occupied the basement and upper three floors while utilizing the the upper floors as office space and leasing some of it to a bank.

Constructed at a cost of $1M, the massive building at 210 S 16th Street was an entire block long and a half block wide. It was built in the tradition of its contemporaries including Macy’s and Marshall Fields. Brandeis was among the first to become a total service store offering restaurants, post office, community meeting rooms, free telephone services and other amenities. According to one newspaper, it had the longest single sales-aisle of any store in the world.

After the new store opened in 1906, Brandeis become synonymous with retail in Omaha. They didn’t stop with retail, however, as they built the Brandeis Theater across the street in 1909. The two buildings were not only connected by an underground tunnel but a strip of red pavement across 17th Street that allowed a grand exit from an afternoon of shopping to the entrance of the theater for an evening show.

The Brandeis family would suffer unthinkable tragedy over a four year period that saw all three sons pass away at relatively young ages. At 48 years old, Emil passed away in 1912 while on the Titanic. Three months later Hugo passed away at 44 following an operation. The weight of running the massive operation fell onto the shoulders of Arthur who was fortunate enough to have his nephew George return from Chicago. Arthur passed away four years later in 1916 following surgery for appendicitis. He was 52 years old.

George took over as the store continued to expand and after growing to occupy all eight floors, two more were added in 1921. With seating for 1,500, the top floor became the home to upscale restaurants such as Italian Renaissance and Pompeian Room. 

While George provided some much needed stability, Arthur’s son, E. John, was ready to assume control following his uncle’s death in 1948. He proved quite capable and brought unique experience earned while not only serving in the military but also traveling the world and hunting. E. John was adamant that the stores remain spotless while adding customer conveniences including air conditioning and escalators. He even went as far as razing the theater across the street in order to build a connected parking garage over 17th Street that delivered customers right to its entrance.

During E. John’s tenure, the store expanded beyond its single downtown location. They developed two malls in Crossroads and Southroads which saw Brandeis as an anchor of each. Other stores were opened at 75th and Dodge and 132nd and Center. It expanded to Lincoln taking over the Gold and Company store downtown while adding another at Gateway Mall. Other locations were opened in Grand Island, Columbus, Council Bluffs and Des Moines.

By the time E. John passed away in 1974, it operated more than a dozen stores with more than 3,000 employees and more than $100M in sales annually. It was also one of the largest family owned retail businesses in the country. Despite its tremendous growth, the flagship store at 16th and Douglas Streets remained important to not only the family but to the citizens of Omaha. For generations it remained an extremely popular holiday destination as the store was lit up at night and featured elaborate window displays, decorated Christmas trees and an in-house Santa Claus.

With no children of his own, the store was taken over by E. John’s nephew, Alan Baer, the son of his sister Leola. By this time, however, the retail landscape was changing. Combined with the city’s continued westward expansion, customers largely abandoned downtown as a shopping destination. That led to the painstaking decision to relocate its flagship store and sell the building.

The Crossroads location proved quite successful for a time while Morton Braiker of River Cities Limited Partnership bought the downtown building in 1981. Its new owners completed a renovation that added two atriums in addition to a skywalk connecting it to Parkfair Mall. It was split up between offices, retail and a food court. Some of its tenants during this era included Union Pacific. Housing and Urban Development, McDonald’s, Little King, Applause Video and Changing Times Lounge among others.

By 1987, Alan realized Brandeis could not longer compete and sold the business to Younkers for $33.9M. The stores including the small one that continued to operate downtown on the first floor facing 16th Street.

After being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, the building had deteriorated due to neglect. As a result, retailers and other business vacated the building and its owner defaulted on the $17.5M mortgage. Its new owners spent $4M to renovate and restore the building. Among these were improvements to the 16th Street entrance, installing exterior lighting that resembled the lamps from 1926, enlarging the food court, converting retail space to offices and repairing the crumbling parking garage.

The building was sold in 2004 at which point there was a failed attempt to convert it into 14 luxury condos. It was only partially occupied in 2006 when the developer in charge of the project went bankrupt. Its conversion to being primarily residential was completed in 2009 after it was acquired by Kansas City developer Townsend Inc.

The number of condos were scaled back as the new developers added apartments to the mix in addition to commercial and retail space along with the food court. Amenities for tenants of The Brandies include concierge service, a lounge with a billiards table, dry cleaning pickup and drop-off, fitness center, community room and a movie theater.

While the J.L. Brandeis & Sons store is long gone, the building remains a landmark that keeps Omaha’s history alive downtown.

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