STORY #16: Country Club Plaza: The Vision That Almost Was
TART PLAZA WORK—Grading on $250,000 Project Will Begin Monday,” announced The Omaha Daily News on Aug. 1, 1926.
With that headline, Omaha residents were introduced to an ambitious new plan for the edge of the Country Club District: a Spanish Revival–style commercial center to be called Country Club Plaza—modeled after the celebrated Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
Metcalfe Company envisioned a “new Spanish village” west of 52nd along Military Avenue. Plans called for a grand suburban theater seating more than 1,000 people, a drug store, shops, a large garage, and a distinctive filling station at the corner of 52nd and Military. Buildings would be set back between Military Avenue and Corby Street, preserving the tree-lined drive into the former clubhouse grounds and framed by landscaping inspired by old Spanish plazas.
The Military Avenue frontage was reserved for commercial buildings designed to harmonize with nearby homes. Apartment sites behind the shops were meant to buffer residences from business activity. English and Spanish architectural styles would dominate, with gables, sloping rooflines and ornamental details. The corner at 52nd and Military was to be a gateway—“one of the amusement places of Omaha,” directly across from Krug Park.
To fund the project, Metcalfe formed a syndicate offering 1,000 shares at $100 each. Investors would own proportional interests in the land itself, with income from long-term leases expected to provide steady returns. By October 1926, the filling station was already complete, it opened Sept. 26, 1926, and leased for 10 years. Plans for the theater were finished, and negotiations for tenants were underway.
And yet—most of this vision never came to pass.
What was actually built? Only one piece of the grand Plaza materialized:
A gas station on the southeast corner of 52nd and Military (5201 Military Ave.), originally called the Country Club Plaza Service Station. Owned by A. L. McCandless, it became a Standard Oil station in 1933—and there has been a gas station on that corner ever since.
No theater was constructed. No row of Spanish-style shops rose along the drive.
Across the street, however, a parallel story unfolded. In 1925, Manhattan Oil Co. purchased the corner at 5153 Military (now Northwest Radial Hwy) for $35,000 and built a Tudor-style gas station. By 1930 it became a Phillips 66—known for decades as Benson 66—operating until 1991. After a 1995 remodel into a convenience store, the site eventually became today’s car dealership.
One other fragment of the Plaza vision did emerge. In 1931, Sam H. Rosenberg took out a building permit to build a brick storefront at 5113-5115-5117 Military Ave. in the Spanish style Metcalfe had envisioned. Rosenberg purchased the lot from the Metcalfe Co. in 1926 for $10,000. Over the decades, the building housed a meat market, grocery stores, Chicken Delight, Mr. Drumstick, and more. Today, it remains—still carrying the architectural character of the era—as Beard & Mane.
The Country Club Plaza was imagined as a gateway of arcades, theaters and tiled roofs—a western echo of Kansas City’s famed district. What remains instead are fragments: a gas station that never left, a lone Spanish-style storefront, and a neighborhood that quietly absorbed a dream that almost reshaped its edge.
It’s a reminder that not every grand plan becomes reality—but even the ones that don’t leave their mark on the landscape.
Sources: We’re Going to Let the Public In On Something Good The Omaha Evening Bee Sept. 28,1926 pg16; Metcalfe Co forms Syndicate to fund Commercial Properties at 52nd and Military Sept, 26, 1926; https://beacon.schneidercorp.com - Douglas County, Nebraska; Invest in Country Club Plaza Oct. 5, 1926 Omaha Daily News; Start Country Club Plaza work Aug. 1, 1926 Omaha Daily News; The Country Club District Ad The Omaha Evening Bee News Sept. 8, 1927 pg7.jpg
Photo Captions:
A full-page ad encouraging people to buy $100 shares to own a piece of the new Country Club Plaza on Military Avenue. It was never built. Omaha Evening Bee, Sept. 28, 1926.
Beautiful rendering of the proposed commercial space on Military Avenue modeled after Kansas City's Country Club Plaza.
Sam Rosenberg bought a lot on Military Avenue for $10,000 from the Metcalfe Co. and filed a permit to build a Spanish style building at 5113-5117 Military Avenue (now Northwest Radial Highway). Omaha World-Herald, July 13, 1930.
One of the first tenants in Sam Rosenberg's building was a grocery store and meat market. A Dec. 17, 1935 ad in the Omaha Posten (a prominent Swedish-language weekly newspaper).
Chicken Delight was in the 5113 Military Avenue building for many years, followed by Mr. Drumstick. Benson Sun Jan. 29,1959.
Beautiful Phillips 66 gas station located on the southeast corner of 52nd and Military. The Durham Museum Archives WW34-004.04.
Present view of the building Sam Rosenberg built in 1930. It now houses Beard and Mane at 5113 Northwest Radial Hwy.
