Up next in our streetcar series, we’ll explore a multi-use building that sits near the Orpheum Theater and is now home Wilson & Washburn, an elevated bar and grill with an extensive beer selection that named after two of the city’s most famous madams.
Sitting just west of the Old Market, the four-story Meyer & Raapke Building stands out among its neighbors at 14th and Harney Streets. Constructed in 1886, the building was designed by the Cleves Brothers in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
Among its most distinct characteristics were the three bays with arches extending from the second floor to above the fourth-floor windows. Separating the third and fourth-floor windows are spandrel panels with the initials “M & R” for Meyer & Raapke. The brick building was accented with rusticated stone and a metal cornice that stretched along the front.
Founded in 1868, Henry Meyer and Louis Raapke were among the first (and very few) to move from the retail grocery business to wholesale. Meyer & Raapke occupied the eastern side of the new building while leasing out the western side to generate cash flow and cover costs. The additional space also allowed room for future expansion.
The company referred to itself as the city’s pioneer grocery store and focused on “fancy groceries,” which included canned goods. The business folded in 1909 but the family retained ownership of the building until 1944, renting it out to a variety of jobbers, manufacturers, and small businesses during that time.
The other original tenant was Marks Brothers Saddlery which occupied the western side of the building. They were a wholesaler and manufacturer of saddles, harnesses, and other leather goods. They remained in the building until 1891.
Other prominent tenants included Corey & McKenzie, a printing and office supplies store and Levenson Chemical Company which manufactured insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides, as well as toiletries, lotions, and soaps. Corey & McKenzie relocated several times but returned to the building in 1975 and remained until 2007. Despite selling the extermination side of the businesses in the 1970s, Levenson remained until 1996.
The storefront was modernized in 1949, and at some point, the spandrel panels and cornice on the eastern half of the building were removed. When the Hotel Harney was demolished in 1965, it exposed long-hidden advertisements on the eastern wall of the building. One read: “Meyer & Raapke, Western Distributing Agt’s for Blackwell’s The Only Genuine Durham Tobacco,” and the other: “Marks Bro’s Saddlery. Wholesale Manufacturers. Saddles, Harness and Collars.” The advertisements were later painted over to protect them from deterioration.
The upper floors of the building were converted to apartments known as Meyer Raapke Flats. The commercial space found new life with businesses such as Second Chance Antiques on the eastern side and Gilligan’s and The Foundation Bar on the west. The Omaha startup Flywheel also operated its offices in the building for a time.
Wilson & Washburn opened in the western portion of the first floor at 1407 Farnam Street. The restaurant and bar honors the legacy of Anna Wilson, a madam known as the “Queen of the Underworld,” and Josie Washburn, a former prostitute turned madam who later authored The Underworld Sewer. The restaurant’s motto, “A Serious Comfort Station,” was a term once used to describe brothels in the days of Wilson and Washburn.
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Sources
- Omaha World-Herald newspaper archives
- “Craft, Comfort, and Room to Grow: A Review of Wilson and Washburn.” The Reader, 12 3 2019.
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12323/anna-wilson
- https://omahahistorical.org/items/show/133.
- https://northomahahistory.com/2016/10/06/north-omaha-mansion-13-anna-wilsons-home/.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wilson_(madam).
- https://www.wilsonandwashburn.com/.
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