Published September 29, 2025 | Updated June 4, 2026

In 1885, Jonas L. Brandeis opened what would become the largest retail store between Chicago and San Francisco right here in Omaha.

The native of Prague was born in 1836 and worked as a tanner before immigrating to the United States at 20. He first settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he shifted to retail. He moved north along Lake Michigan, where he opened his first store, the Manitowoc Clothing Store. He is said to have traded with Native Americans in the area at the time.

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 not only sat along the Missouri River but also served as a hub for the railroad.

After relocating to Omaha in 1881, Jonas opened a new store called The Fair, or J.L. Brandeis & Son, on 13th Street between Howard and Jackson Streets four years later. At this point, he was joined by his eldest son, Arthur, in the family business. 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, riding a wagon full of marked-down merchandise through the streets, and releasing a dozen balloons with coupons for free clothing.

The success of the first store led to the opening of a larger store, J.L. Brandeis & Sons, at 16th and Douglas Streets, at which point his other two sons had joined the business. After the new store burned to the ground in 1894, they built an even larger one to replace it. Around this time, his sons assumed day-to-day responsibility, allowing their father to retire. Each had a specialty, with Arthur as its president, Emil focused on expansion, and Hugo on merchandising. They were joined by their cousin, George, who eventually moved to Chicago to manage another store.

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 on 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, featuring ornamentation and window trim that differentiated each floor from the outside. Inside, it had ornate floor-to-ceiling columns. At first, the store occupied the first three floors and the basement while the upper floors were used as offices.

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 Field’s. Brandeis was among the first to become a total-service store, offering restaurants, a post office, community meeting rooms, free telephone services, and other amenities. It reportedly had the longest single sales aisle of any store in the world.

After the new store opened in 1906, Brandeis became 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 connected not only by an underground tunnel but also by 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 a son-in-law and all three sons pass away at relatively young ages. At 54 years old, Sarah’s husband, Herman, was murdered by bandits near his home in 1911. The case was never solved. He was the owner of Hotel Loyal and a partner in Nebraska Clothing.

In 1912, Emil traveled overseas to visit a niece in Italy while also traveling to Spain and Egypt. He originally planned to return home in May but changed his plans to sail on the Titanic. He was 48 years old when the ship struck an iceberg and sank. Just three months later, a second son, 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 cousin George return from Chicago. Arthur passed away four years later at the age of 52 following surgery for appendicitis.

Under George’s leadership, the store continued to expand, occupying all eight floors while adding two more in 1921. It also included upscale restaurants such as Italian Renaissance and Pompeian Room, with combined seating for 1,500.

The last of Jonas’s children, Sarah, passed away in 1936. While George provided some much-needed stability, Arthur’s son, Emil John, was ready to assume control following his uncle’s death in 1948. He proved quite capable and brought unique experience earned while serving in the military, 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 to build a connected parking garage over 17th Street that delivered customers to its entrance.

During E. John’s tenure, the store expanded beyond its single downtown location. They developed two malls, allowing Brandeis to be the anchor of each: Crossroads and Southroads. He proceeded to open another store in Omaha at 132nd and Center, as well as the Gold and Company store and Gateway Mall in Lincoln. Other locations were opened in Grand Island, Columbus, Council Bluffs, and Des Moines.

By the time E. John passed away in 1974, Brandeis operated more than a dozen stores with over 3,000 employees and more than $100 million in sales annually. It was also one of the largest family-owned retail businesses in the country. Despite its expansion, the flagship store at 16th and Douglas Streets remained important not only to the family but to the citizens of Omaha. For generations, it was 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 his 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. This led to the painstaking decision to close its flagship store in 1980.

Over the next two decades, the Brandeis building would change hands a number of times, each with their own vision of what to do with it. In 1981, its owners divided the building into office space, retail, and a food court while adding two atriums and a skywalk that connected it to Parkfair Mall. Despite those changes, the building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, deteriorated due to neglect, causing businesses to relocate and the owner to default on its mortgage. Its next owners restored the building, including improvements to the entrance at 16th Street, adding exterior lighting that resembled the lamps from the 1960s, enlarging the food court, repairing the parking garage, and converting retail space to offices. By 1987, Baer realized the store could no longer compete and sold it to Younkers.

After being sold again in 2004, Lincoln-based Hampton Development Services attempted to convert it to luxury condos. It was only partially occupied when the developer went bankrupt, resulting in its sale to Kansas-based Townsend Inc. in 2008. That firm finished its conversion to being primarily residential a year later. This included the addition of apartments, commercial and retail space, along with a food court. Today, its amenities include concierge service, a lounge with a billiards table, dry cleaning pickup and drop-off, a fitness center, a community room, and a movie theater.

The Brandeis family suffered its share of tragedy despite becoming one of the city’s wealthiest dynasties. Still, it was these men who persevered to build one of the country’s largest retail stores: Jonas L. Brandeis. Arthur Brandeis. George Brandeis. E. John Brandeis. Alan Baer. They etched the Brandeis name in Omaha’s history books. While that iconic flagship store downtown no longer sells clothing, kitchenware, or home goods, the building still stands. It still bears the Brandeis name. It is a reminder of a time when it was the center of downtown retail.

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More pictures

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• https://www.nps.gov/places/j-l-brandeis-sons-store-building.htm
• https://www.omahamagazine.com/60/looking-back-at-holidays-in-omahas-brandeis-building/
• https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BD-068-N_Brandeis-Sons_NR.pdf
• https://arnoldgarson.substack.com/p/the-downtown-department-store-a-remnant
• https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NE-01-055-0008
• https://departmentstoremuseum.blogspot.com/2010/11/j-l-brandeis-sons-omaha-nebraska.html
• https://douglascohistory.org/our-blog/emil-brandeis/
• https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/emil-brandeis.html
• Jonas Leopold Brandeis (1836-1903) – Find a Grave Memorial
• https://theclio.com/entry/51855