At one time, Omaha was home to the most elegant hotel between Chicago and San Francisco. Located in the West Farnam District, the Blackstone Hotel lent its name to the increasingly affluent neighborhood along the streetcar route. The area became known as the Blackstone District, earning a reputation as Omaha’s Gold Coast.
The hotel was built for Bankers Realty Company, which hired Francis W. Fitzpatrick as its architect. As an assistant to Henry Ives Cobb, he helped design the Chicago Federal Building and later designed the St. Regis Apartments in Omaha. The eight-story Blackstone was built in the Second Renaissance Revival style with a steel frame covered in brick and a terracotta cornice.
Located at 302 South 36th Street, the hotel opened in 1916 as a residential hotel that rented rooms by the year while providing hotel-like services. Unlike similar hotels that were all located downtown, the Blackstone was built in west Omaha to serve the city’s wealthy residents. Its apartments ranged from one to six rooms, none with kitchens, and the streetcar provided easy access to Happy Hollow, Country Club and Field Club for the “club man.”
The investment company didn’t get the returns it had hoped for, due in part to the number of houses and apartment complexes being built at the same time. By the time the company was looking to sell, its service and furnishings had declined to the point where they used torn bed sheets as tablecloths. That gave Charles Schimmel, the son of a successful Vienna caterer, an opportunity to turn it into one of the best hotels in the country.
Born in Austria in 1873, Charles immigrated to the U.S. at 16 and settled in Chicago, where he built the Custer Hotel in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1915. He moved to Omaha in 1920 and bought the Blackstone. Over time, the Schimmel chain expanded to include the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln; Hotel-Kings-Way in St. Louis; Lassen Hotel and Schimmel Inn in Wichita, Kan.; Town House Hotel in Kansas City; Lincoln-Douglas Hotel in Quincy, Ill.; and Indian Hills Inn in Omaha.
Charles and Mary Schimmel turned the Blackstone into a symbol of elegance during the Roaring Twenties, regarded as a premier stop along the Lincoln Highway. The first floor featured a grand marble staircase and palm room, which contributed to its grandeur alongside a dining room, lounge and soda fountain…