Between the 1870s and 1880s, real estate booms in North Omaha maybe the community grow fast. Focused on the outer edges of the city, the areas north of Cuming and east of North 24th Street grew full, fast! One of these neighborhoods was a suburb between urban splendor and country opulence sitting in the rolling hills above the rest of Omaha. This is a history of the Montclair Neighborhood.
Locating Montclair
Montclair is a deeply historic neighborhood that was originally a bridge between the city and the country, the working class and the upper class. Situated in the rolling hills west of the original Omaha settlement in the Missouri River Valley, Montclair was destined for growth.
Located on the northwest corner of North 30th and Cuming Streets, the Montclair neighborhood spreads from Hamilton Street on the north to Cuming Street on the south, and from North 30th Street on the east to North 33rd Street. Other streets in the neighborhood include…
- Lafayette Avenue
- Myrtle Avenue
- Nicholas Street
- Lincoln Boulevard
- Oregon Trail
- North 31st
- North 32nd
The neighborhood originally ran east to North 28th Avenue, but eventually ceded the area west of 30th to the Kellom Heights neighborhood. Today they are rejoined.
Laid out right on the edge of Omaha’s early streetcar network, this compact neighborhood connected the working-class families of North Omaha directly into the original Near North Side, the Capitol neighborhood, and downtown Omaha. Interesting note: When it was originally laid out in 1885, the future Montclair Neighborhood was not bordered North 30th Street, because there wasn’t one! Instead, there was a property line in its place where the future street was eventually laid. For more than 50 years, North 29th Street was the main north-south road from Cuming Street north to Ames Avenue…