Dundee–Happy Hollow Historic District
Dundee–Happy Hollow Historic District
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Dundee–Happy Hollow Historic District

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Dundee–Happy Hollow Historic District

The Dundee–Happy Hollow Historic District is located west of Midtown Omaha, Nebraska. It covers the area between Harney Street on the south, Hamilton Street on the north, Happy Hollow Boulevard on the west, and 46th Street on the east. The "heart" of Dundee is located at 50th and Underwood Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was founded in 1880 and annexed into the city in 1915. Dundee is home to Warren Buffett and nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist Jeff Koterba and was the hometown of filmmaker Alexander Payne. Actor Henry Fonda additionally lived in the Dundee neighborhood.

The neighborhood was developed in 1880 and has been dubbed Omaha's first suburb.

The Shannon Brothers of Kansas City were hired to construct six homes between 48th and 52nd Street, Capitol to California. The brothers had just converted the Kansas City Fairgrounds on the edge of Downtown Kansas City into a planned residential development called Dundee Place and they hoped to do the same in Omaha. Unlike other suburban development where the houses look similar, the houses in Dundee were built to look distinctive.

The Omaha Herald on October 30, 1888 noted neighborhood covenants required that the buildings be for residential purposes only, stand at least 25 feet away from the street, cost at least $2500, and not be "used for any immoral or illegal business, nor shall any spirits or malt liquors be sold or bartered away."

The houses did not initially sell well and the developers set out to create the neighborhood as a self-contained village. Developers planted 2,000 maple trees along the roadways (one of which was named Underwood for one of the developers). In 1905 developer Luke Toot O'Keefe offered free lots if the buyer built. If the buyer stayed for more than a year he got a bonus of $500. Interest in the neighborhood skyrocketed and the developers expanded to be south of Dodge Street and north of Cuming Street.

C.C. and J.E. George laid out Happy Hollow Boulevard and developed the area south of Dodge and west of 50th to Elmwood Park. They filled in the creek that ran along 50th Street and added sidewalks and the Dundee lights. Homes in the area reflected the Colonial, Georgian and Tudor Revival styles. Omaha annexed Dundee on June 20, 1915. At that time it was 0.7 sq mi (1.8 km2) and had 2500 residents.

The district includes 30 known works by Omaha architect F. A. Henninger.

In April 1945 a Japanese fire balloon exploded over Dundee. The incident was part of a large World War II campaign by the Japanese military to cause mass chaos in American cities. However, the story was suppressed by the American military until after the war was over. Nobody was hurt in the explosion.

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