Omaha Exploration

The abandoned Salvation Army building at 26th and Center Streets looks like something from The Last of Us. You’ve likely seen the building while driving across the Martha Street bridge.

Located in the former Sheelytown neighborhood, it was built in 1917 by Edwin Stanton Miller. After getting into the grain business in his early 20s, Edwin moved to Beatrice where he started his first mill. After it burned down, he relocated to Omaha and built a new plant at 2501 Center Street.

From the building, Ed alongside his two sons operated Miller Cereal Mills making corn flakes and other products until 1943. By that time, Ed retired and sold the business and the property Kellogg’s which continued to utilize until 1965 when it moved to 9601 F Street.

The Salvation Army moved its Men’s Social Services Center to the building in 1965. The seven-story building provided services to men battling addiction. In addition to housing, it provided clothing, therapy and workforce training. The building also had a kitchen, chapel, recreation center with bowling, pool tables and gym as well as televisions. Men that completed its six-month treatment program often left for higher paying jobs outside the facility. Two years later, the Salvation Army built a thrift store across the street which is where the arrow points on the taller building.

By 2001 it was beginning to show its age with dingy hallways, stained ceiling tiles, a shaky elevator and rooms containing mismatched furniture. Combined with the expense to heat the old building, the Salvation Army opted to relocate to a new facility at 25th and Dodge Streets in 2001.

Virgil Anderson of Anderson Excavation bought it in 2004. It seems the building sat mostly vacant over the years before Clarity Development announced it would be razed in favor of an apartment building and row houses. It was to be part of the larger Intersections project which included sports fields and a health center. The project fell through in 2022 and while it was subsequently sold to an LLC, it remains vacant with no announcements as to the future of the long-abandoned property.

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Read my content on Grow Omaha: Local History by Omaha Exploration | Grow Omaha

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