Excavation site of Oxworth Apartments at 27th and Leavenworth Streets. The “ox” is a nod to the dairy factory once there and the “worth” is a tribute to Leavenworth Street. (Courtesy of Hausmann Construction)
OMAHA — Backhoes digging out a future apartment site in Omaha’s urban core unearthed some unexpected remnants of an old dairy factory that once distributed milk to doorsteps via horse-drawn wagons.
Among the surprises: mysterious tunnels; intact ice cream bottle lids that spilled out when a vault was struck and an entire foundation of a brick building.
“We knew there’d be debris, but not to this degree,” said Tom McLeay of Clarity Real Estate Companies, a co-developer of the 194-unit Oxworth apartment complex that will span an entire city block. “It’s almost like we’re amateur archeologists, discovering this century-old dairy foundation that hasn’t seen the light of day for 40 years.”…