Reinvigorating Vinton Street

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It first wowed the public with colossal-sized silo art — those agriculture-themed banners that drape the old grain elevators visible from Interstate 80.

Then the nonprofit Emerging Terrain group launched other creative land use projects, including a 500-person dinner outside the silos that linked chefs with local farmers, an ongoing suburban growth study featuring on-the-farm interviews and shot-from the-air photographs, and the coming installation of "green" seating in certain downtown parking spots.

Plans for Emerging Terrain also call for expanding in-house, with the addition next month of three urban design fellowships.

Amid all that activity, though, something was missing.

The gap is about to be filled when the four-year-old organization, best known for transforming urban spaces, closes next month on the purchase of its first permanent home — one that offers the inviting street presence that founders always wanted.

Its new storefront residence will be in the Vinton Street Commercial Historic District, a winding strip of businesses that also is strengthening its economic position and its identity as it redevelops into a more artsy destination area.

"We are one more piece of the puzzle," said Anne Trumble, director of Emerging Terrain. "There's just such great history here and a love for this neighborhood. It's a part of the city on the verge of reinvigorating itself."

Registered as a national historic place, the two-block Vinton Street commercial district's 17 buildings were constructed between 1890 and 1923. Tenants now include an antique store, a beauty salon, eateries, trade and clothing shops, an internationally known photographer and a book bindery.

Family homes and apartments surround the district, which is a short drive from downtown Omaha.

Emerging Terrain's building at 1717 Vinton St. was built in 1913 and was most recently home to Mario Carpet Service. In earlier days it housed mail-order, painting and printing businesses.

Architects plan to return the two-story, Italianate-style structure as much as possible to its original character: wood floors, brick interior walls, a stamped tin ceiling. It retains original cast-iron columns and an inset double entryway with transom windows.

Foremost, though, the restoration will accommodate the planned reuse of the main floor's 2,200 square feet as an event space and a studio for a trio of urban design fellows who are set to start work next month.

Like Trumble, the fellows are schooled in architectural landscape and urban design. They'll help further the organization's goal of creatively engaging the community about factors that shape the physical environment.

In addition to working on a second phase of silo art banners, Emerging Terrain is researching Sarpy County's rural-to-urban shift. That study will culminate in a display of photos, recordings and other results at a "big box" store and parking lot. The group also is key to a private-public effort called Trugs: Activating Streets, which will create unique seating and planter areas along Leavenworth Street near downtown.

The second floor of the Vinton Street facility will house Emerging Terrain's administrative offices and a boardroom.

Thomas Miller, senior associate at BVH Architects, is helping with the building design. He said restoring aging neighborhood commercial districts helps a city maintain a sense of history while providing a lively area for business and residents to interact.

"Restoring our historic core is key to the revitalization of downtown and the long-term health of the entire city," Miller said.

Louie Marcuzzo, who serves up burgers and fries across the street, agrees.

In the 31 years since opening a catering place that would become Louie M's Burger Lust, Marcuzzo has witnessed the ups and downs of Vinton Street, currently an upswing with recent attention from the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Karen Mavropoulos of the chamber said the revitalization effort began about a year ago after South Omaha residents helped identify areas of focus. The Vinton Street Merchants Association was resurrected and works closely with the Deer Park Neighborhood Association. A facade improvement program is in the works to spice up storefronts and street lighting, and officials are recruiting tenants to Vinton Street between 13th and 24th Streets.

In the early 1980s, Marcuzzo said, the district, established primarily by German immigrants, was deteriorating. "A lot of the buildings were pretty trashy or unoccupied."

Area merchants and the district's city council representative worked to breathe life into the commercial area, said Marcuzzo. Longtime residents like Rybin Plumbing & Heating and Carl Schrat Heating & Air Conditioning remained invested. The nearby El Aguila restaurant and Latino businesses later attracted more food and commercial ventures.

More recent arrivals like Hardware Gallery in the former Schneider Hardware building have added to the arts flair brought by Larry Ferguson's photography studio.

Ferguson, a fine arts photographer who also heads the city's public art commission, said he walked down most every thoroughfare in Omaha after he arrived to the city as an artist in residence. He "fell in love" with Vinton Street, where he bought a building in 1987.

"It really struck a chord in me," he said, and brought back memories of his hometown of Maxwell, Neb. "It has that walkability."

Ferguson said he is ecstatic that there is a rally around the arts theme. He said the district, buoyed by a state grant, will block off the street in May and hold its first street arts festival.

"It's rockin'," Ferguson said.

Merchants and the chamber are hoping for a performing arts tenant to move into a big corner theater building next to Louie M's, known as the South Side Turner Hall. "That will be key," Marcuzzo said.

Built around 1910, the hall, now in need of major rehabilitation, most recently was occupied by an organ builder and repairer. Early on, according to the application for the historic district designation, it might have housed a Schlitz Brewery saloon. It also has served as a social hall and meeting place for the old version of the merchants association.

The revived association approached Trumble about moving onto Vinton Street. Members had heard she was looking to move from rental space at the former Mastercraft furniture factory downtown.

Other places Trumble had considered include a former strip bar and a paper manufacturing plant near downtown and a bakery near 42nd and Nicholas Streets.

After a walk along the Vinton Street corridor, she set her sights on the carpet building, which has an empty lot next to it that is ideal for outdoor events. (The carpet store operator has died, and his widow is living on the upper floor.)

Negotiations ensued. Trumble said the mortgage payments on the $115,000 purchase will be less than the rent at her former location.

The group is excited to be part of the "renaissance" of old main street neighborhood strips, said Trumble, who once shared a rental space in the Benson business district.

She said creative and community-minded tenants who gravitate toward older commercial areas like the diversity. Likewise, Trumble said she will love working next to a butcher. She'll appreciate walking across the street for a Salvadoran pupusa, or pan dulce Mexican sweet bread, or an old-fashioned burger for lunch or corned beef hash for breakfast.

By reviving areas like Vinton Street, Trumble said, cities can become more connected, less disjointed. "We can eventually end up with a whole city of neighborhoods rather than in-between places."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com

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