OLD MARKET

The warmth of the sun sneaks its way to the basin of jobber’s canyon. It’s a tiny street with unrefrigerated trucks bringing food to market. The canyon is the large warehouse buildings on both sides of the street. On many corners are ma & pa grocery stores and farmer’s markets. The river is nearby where barges bring food and heavy goods. According to Charles Bercaw former board chairman of the Omaha parks and local historian, the music died in 59’ Refrigerated food went to the suburbs as did stores. Warehouses near the train rails remained, but the vitality began to leave. In the late 50’s, the large ornate post office in the warehouse district was leveled replaced by a bland modernist postal service.

Years ago, Petula Clark sang a song about going DOWNTOWN. By the late 60’s that song didn’t make much sense when there were a plethora of shopping malls throughout the city. Further, the downtown had withered and the trolley that I rode no longer existed.

Preservationist formed to protect the identity of the city and to this day have saved half of the large buildings and homes. In the mean time according to Bercaw, the Mercer family with a ton of money saw diamonds rather than stone in the warehouse district and bought many of the buildings. Along with the preservationist, they formed the OLD MARKET. In Albuquerque, it is called OLD TOWN; Denver calls their area LO DO. Regardless of the name, OLD MARKET is the place of fine restaurants, anchor hotels, lofts, boutiques,
and my favorite spot for a drink, MR. TOADS. There is a beautiful atrium where the sun appears to connect two buildings. Best of all, there is traffic in the streets and on the sidewalks as there are 3 blocks wide and 7 to 10 block long residential area buildings filled with apartments. In other words, the Mercers found diamonds.

Now you know the rest of the story is there a Mercer family here or is there a Mercer family in us all to finish the beginnings of what might be our old market? Take the electronic trolley to (omahaoldmarket.com) It’s a cyber day in the life of the city, my late father’s old warehouse still is there on the edge of the OLD MARKET and looks better than ever. So does the downtown.