The owners of the Kotera and Sloup Grocery

The neighborhood of Hartman Addition or 16th and William is a close neighbor to the famous Little Bohemia neighborhood on South 13th Street. Little Bohemia was founded in the late 1870s by the Kountze Family. That neighborhood is a predominantly Czech area with some Italian and German families intermixed due to the proximity to Little Italy and St. Joseph Catholic Parish, which was a German majority church. 16th and William, or Hartman Addition, was also a predominantly Czech neighborhood, with Italian and German influence. This community was established just after Little Bohemia in the 1890s. Overall, Hartman Addition grew on labor from the industrial areas and railroad yards to the north, in what is now the Old Market, as well as the packing house jobs of South Omaha.

Hartman Addition depended greatly on the streetcar line that went down 16th Street, from Vinton Street in the South to Florence in the North. This public transportation system fueled economic growth along 16th Street, generally, and in Hartman Addition, specifically, and connected both the south side and north side of the city with downtown. With the rise of car culture and suburbanization in the post-WWII period, many white ethnic residents began to flee traditional inner-city neighborhoods like Hartman Addition for the suburbs. The streetcar system began to decline and the 16th Street line was halted for good in 1951, dealing a major blow Hartman Addition. These changes were further exacerbated by the decline of the packing industry to the south and the industrial areas to the north. With many businesses that relied on foot traffic and the need for services near to home, the intersection became increasingly abandoned in the 1950s and 1960s.

The photo below contains the families of Frank J. Kotera and Joseph J. Sloup who both ran the Kotera & Sloup grocery store together. They were always active in their community and gave food to people that needed for free.

The building that I am studying is on 1263 S. 16th Street was constructed in the 1890’s, as white ethnic immigrants were coming to the city in large numbers to work in the nearby packing industry. Like many other early buildings in the area, it was a two-story structure with a business on the first floor and housing on the second story. Many small houses are located nearby and the sidewalks in this community are wide and well-lit. For most of its existence, the space was occupied by a restaurant or bar that served the local working-class community as a place to get together with family, friends and co-workers and sometimes discuss issues. In the early years, the bar was owned by the Metz family and was called the Metz Brewery Saloon. It sold food, alcohol and treats. Fred Metz was the primary owner, while other family members owned stock in the company. His son, Fred Metz, Jr. was also a big help at the saloon. In 1931 during Prohibition, the business was ordered to close by the police because it sold alcohol illegally. After Prohibition ended, the the bar reopened and continued to thrive along with the neighborhood surrounding it. After Fred Metz died on February 8, 1937, the bar was sold to Anton Frank Holub, who changed the name to the Holub Restaurant. Later, another bar called Ace and Ann’s set up shop in the building. In its hey-day, a grocery store operated next door and several other small businesses filled other spaces nearby.

As the surrounding community declined in recent decades, it became increasingly difficult for businesses to succeed in the area. After laying vacant for a number of years, the original building at 1263 S. 16th Street was torn down in 2018 and is now an empty lot. There isn’t one clear explanation for why the neighborhood declined, but many. In the 1950s, the street car system, which led many people to this neighborhood, was discontinued. In the 1970s, the stockyards and packinghouses that had employed many of the local residents began to close. Many people that lived nearby began moving away to the suburbs. As these and other changes set in, businesses closed, leaving behind only fond memories of the people who grew up in the area.

This artifact is an Omaha World-Herald article from when this business was ordered to close because of prohibition. It was important because it shows that prohibition didn’t just affect one part of the country it affected everyone, and it places Omaha in the national story of Prohibition.

Today, there’s a parking lot where this building once stood, the lot has stood vacant since the settlement house was demolished in 1964. The building that the lot belongs to seems to have been built in the 1970s or 80s. There is grass and mulch with flowers surrounding the lot and some trees to the right. This parking lot belongs to a Catholic charity called the Juan Diego Center. While it’s no longer a settlement house, it’s still serving the community as a charity.

For much of its early existence, 1422 William Street was home to the Swoboda Bakery, owned by Frank J. Swoboda. The structure was built in 1889 by Joseph Dworak. The building, made with red brick and green trim around its three doors and multiple windows, is larger than most of the structures nearby. The top half was used as living quarters, while the bottom was for the business. Swoboda Bakery occupied the space until the end of WWII in 1945. From the late-1940s through the 1960s, the building housed a plumbing business, a repair shop and a carpet service, among other tenants. In the 1970s and 1980s, as the neighborhood went into sharp decline, the structure stood vacant.

In the end, the businesses housed in this building were ultimately a casualty of the street car ending in the 1940s, the movement of large numbers of people to the suburbs and the decline of industry to the north and south of the area. Today, as some of the surrounding neighborhoods, like “Little Bohemia,” experience revitalization, perhaps that renewed vitality might ultimately reach this neighborhood. If so, maybe a business could open again at 1422 William Street and attract a new, young crowd and be sustainable for years to come.

This is a news article in the Omaha World-Herald about Frank J. Swoboda. It’s about how he soldout of about 500 loafs of bread in one day. He was happy and decided to go upstairs and eat dinner with his wife when they realized that they didn’t have bread for themselves. Frank had to go to his neighbor who is also a customer to borrow some slices.

The Beranek pharmacy opened on 1402 South 16th Street in 1889 by Stanley A. Beranek. The outside of the pharmacy is made of reddish-pink wood and includes a wood sign that stretches above the top of the roof. The front of the building has four windows for the display. It now is a residential building that is run down.

During the early part of the 20th Century, pharmacists were more than just the person your doctor called to fill a prescription. Pharmacists back then had the main purpose of being closer to a doctor, particularly in working-class communities where local people could not always afford to see the doctor. Instead, they often visited the local pharmacist, described their ailment and the pharmacist would suggest a remedy. In addition to being an important professional figure in his neighborhood, Mr. Beranek was also a prominent and generous member of his community beyond that. He was active in his church, where he had perfect attendance at Sunday services for forty-six years, and helped raise $1223.00 with a group of other pharmacists to give to help build the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Omaha.

Stanley Beranek, who died in 1935, served as his neighborhood pharmacist for 37 years. When he retired in 1926, he passed on his practice and store to his son, Stanley C. Beranek, who continued the business until 1960. The 1960s were a time of decline for the neighborhood, making it increasingly difficult for local businesses to survive. With the move of many residents to the suburbs after WWII, the decline of industry in South Omaha and to the North in what is today the Old Market, and the loss of the streetcar on 16th street in the 1940s, it became harder and harder to get the foot traffic necessary to bring people into the store. After the pharmacy closed it was converted into a residential home which it functions as until this day.

This artifact from the Omaha World-Herald shows the official closing of the Beranek pharmacy after 71 years of operation. This artifact is important because it marks the end of both the pharmacy in our neighborhood and marks the decline of Hartman Addition.

1422 William St

My business is the William Street Arcade. Inside there will be a small ice cream parlor and a little food area. I will sell burgers, drinks, chips, and game cards. With the game cards you put money on them and then your points go on them every time you swipe and play a game. Some of the games I will have are basketball, ski ball, multiplayer games, and regular arcade games. To get my business noticed I will have a grand opening where if you come you can get a $5 game card and one free ice cream cone, so people come and check it out. I will also buy advertising space on social media or YouTube. I will also buy spots on benches near bus stops so that way they can just take the bus to the bus stop near my arcade. I will have about seven employees. I will have two managers who will do things like making sure everyone follows the safety rules. They will also make sure that all employees follow the company guidelines. There will be one chef, they will oversee cooking the burgers. I will have one technician; the technician will take care of all the arcade games. I will have one ice cream parlor worker. They will just get the scoops of ice cream. I will have two waiters/waitresses. Their jobs would be giving the people their food and drinks. My goal for many of the jobs is to hire local teens since it can be hard for younger workers to find jobs in the community they live in.

My business will be better for the community because it will be the start to making it thrive like it did years before. Since this business is local it will supply jobs to people in the community. It will also be bringing in money. My business will also be better for the people on the neighborhood. This is because it is closer, so they won’t have to drive far distances to hangout and have some fun. Not only will it be easier to hangout it will also be more convenient for people, and they won’t need to spend as much on gas. I feel that I will get a lot of customers because I’m local and people in the community will come and support a business that is trying to make the neighborhood a better place.

1402 S 16th St

My business is the 16th Street Workshop. This workshop will be a carpentry workshop that allows you to buy a membership to get access to the workshop with all the tools that you could ever need. With this if we don’t have the tool that you need you can suggest that the workshop upgrade its current tool or buy a new tool. Next, there are different levels to membership, a basic membership or an advanced or VIP membership. With these different levels you get different things, basic allows access to all the current and new tools. With advanced you get a discount on materials and $10 credit on materials in our store. Finally, our VIP membership includes, a cool custom jacket, and exclusive access to our company demos, which will let you test out all the latest tools that all the top of the line companies give us. (along with all of these you get any of the benefits lower than your membership.)

I believe it will be beneficial for the community because it allows people to, mainly, fix things that they already own. With this I will have educators to help people fix things and build things. Also, with the educators they will help you with broken tools, how to use tools, how, step by step to build a thing that you want to build. More on the community is that we will have 10-20-dollar classes to teach people to fix things with the tools you already own at home. We will also have 5-dollar classes to teach kids how to use tools, and the safety of certain more dangerous tools. The main thing I built this business is to help the community out with the problems it has and to improve it without pushing the people who already live in this neighborhood without pushing them out. With many older homes in the neighborhood, these skills will be vital for keeping the classic look of the area