The Country Club District of Omaha started development 100 years ago when Metcalfe Company bought around 80 acres of land, promising to build “The Show Place of Omaha.”
According to the original sales literature, the area was so sought-after that the majority of lots were sold as soon as they became available. The Country Club Historic District website states that several noted architects worked on the development. One of those architects was Reinholdt Hennig.
According to documentation from History Nebraska, Hennig graduated from Central High School in 1920, and was a draftsman by 1922 before becoming an architect in 1926. He was a part of the team that created St. John’s AME Church, one of Omaha’s best-known Prairie-style buildings, and designed by Frederick S. Stott. Hennig subsequently created several of the houses in the Country Club area and beyond.
Hennig was the architect of the building in that area known as the “House of Tomorrow,” an Art Deco and Art Moderne style house at 2043 N. 53rd St. built in 1933 for the Junior Chamber of Commerce (the group known today as the Jaycees). This building was constructed of poured concrete and concrete block and features a stepped-down front elevation, flat roofs, metal casement windows, and a semi-circular, projecting wing.
Among old-home lovers in Omaha, a buzz still sounds when a Hennig house is up for sale, as happened recently with the one at 2707 Country Club Avenue. This house has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and 2,488 square feet. It’s a Tudor-revival home, made of red brick with the exterior feature of a gothic-style parapet in the front that evokes the idea of a home being one’s castle. The gothic touches also extend to the narrow leaded windows. This home, built during the automotive age in America, also includes a one-vehicle garage, with the door being recessed.
The foyer leads to a staircase that rises three stairs before turning to the left. The remainder of the staircase leads to the second floor, where a landing looks out over the leaded glass windows above the parapet, and one can walk a balcony-esque hallway that looks down over the first floor.
In true Tudor-revival form, the house includes several hipped roofs and gables, so many of the second-floor rooms feature handsome nooks and crannies where one can stare out the window and daydream.
Instead of walking the hall and ascending the staircase, one can stay on the first floor and walk through a gothic archway—often featured in Tudor-revival homes—to a living space with a large, hooded fireplace as a focal point. The opposite end of the living room shows a larger gothic archway leading to a dining room.
This house recently sold, and the new homeowners will surely be delighted with this piece of Omaha created by the man who later designed the J. B. Low house at 91st and Hickory streets and the prairie-style home at 1503 S. 58th St.
This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Omaha Home Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
