Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, June 5, 1910, Page 17

PART TRRER HALF-TONE PAGES ONE TO FOUR. THE OMAHA SunNDAY BEE. FOR ALL THE NEWS THE OMAHA BEE BEST IN TME WEST VOL. XXXIX—NO. 81, OMAHA, SUNDAY HARRIMAN IS Completion of Magnificent Al id the late E. H. Harriman, 5tool sun-bathing in front of his tent in the outskirts of San Auntonio, fighting the one losing battle of his remarkable ca- Teer, “that the next year or so will bring about great railroad development. The Unlon Pacific, for instance, is about ready to begin definite action on a new headquarters building in Omaha, and various other projects.for betterment are under way."” Mr. Harriman was talking to a newspaper man who had called for the daily health bulletin. Retlcepce. @s a general rule, characterized the working days ot the great rall wizard, but he was dying then—dying by inches, the falling shadow baffled only by his indomitable will, which rallied anew under glorious floods of West Texas sunshine—and as if to evade discussion of his physical condition, then the all-prevailing toplc, taciturnity faded away and Mr. Harriman was strangely ready to talk of industrial expansion. Mr. Harriman {s dead—but the Union Pacific building idea sur- vives. At Fifteenth and Dodge streets, Omaha, preliminary work is now under way, and a magnificent twelve-story structure-—a bullding in full consonance with the importance of the road—will be the final outcome. Just to what extent this building is & posthumous creation of the late Mr. Harriman, and just how far it is the work of Judge Lovett, Mr. Mohler and others, succeeding to enlarged power, is a Union Pacific family question into which the public has no occasion to pry. Be that as it niay, whether or not it is the fulfillment of a Harri- man conception, the building is assured and in that knowledge pro- gresgive Omaha rests supremely content. To the ordinary man of affairs the construction of a modern twelve-story bullding is an undertaking of magnitude. To the mas- ter minds who guide Unfon Pacific destinies the task is a mere bit of commonplace routine. Difficulty has always melted away before the Unicn Pacific spirit—in fact, to the Union Pacific difficulty is merely the signal for increased effort. There may have been some difficulty in bridging Great falt Lake, but the work was successfully done. There may have béen some diffculty in many of the other notable *ngineering feats, but they were pushed to completion Ob- viously, Lhen, in a comparative sense, construction of the Union Pa- cific’s new bome is simply a matter ot time enough for the builders to rear it. Tt s only a colncidence, yet aptly fitting, that the Union Pacific bullding should be located on Dodge street. for it brings to mind the name of Dodge—General Grenville M. Dodge—who kad much to do with building the road. Back in Washington City, and elsewhere, statesmen dreamed glowing day dreums of linking the Atlantic and as he sat on a camp An Epoch of 1910 ’ NEW UNION PACIFIC BUILDI) The bullding will be occupled as follows: aggnt; third, law department, general claim ring; fifth, auditor; sixth, freight auditor; ticket auditors; tenth, chief engineer and others; G, AS IT WILL APPEAR WHEN COMPLETED. First floor, general passenger and freight de- pagtments; second, vice president and general manager, general superintendent, agent, Union Pacific coal departmen seventh, auditor; eleventh and twelfth, New the Pacific by steel bands, but it remalned for Grenville M. Dodge, as chief engineer, and other men of his type, to actually blaze the trail, running the gauntlet ail of the while of Indian builets, for be it remembered that hostile warriors resented the invasion of tho buiiders, and every mile of the Union Pacific from central Nebrasks west to Utah was bullt within range of Indian rifles. Wherefore, the men who staked the route, threw up the grade, placed the ties and laid the rails were on the firing line of danger all the while—as much so as though they had been on' the field of battle. General Dodge, Jy the way, has lived to see his pioneer project unfold ite greatness. He is a grand old man of the west, still active despite his advanced years—but that is a story of itself to be told at another time. No one in Union Pacific authority will hazard a guess these days as to just when the new building will be ready for occupation, but the work is being rushed and there will be no more delay than is absolutely necessary. And when at last the finishing stroke has come there will not, it is said, be a more ornate rallway headquarters building anywhere in the United States. Twelve stories upward it will go, with a front- age of 199 feet on Dodge street and 146 feet on Fifteenth street. The construction will be of abgolutely fireproof material, so planned s to give the greatest amount of light and air to each room. The exterior of the lower three stories will be of stone and the upper stories will be of dark brown brick, with terra cotta trimmings. The interior trim will be of quarter-sawed oak, with marble entrance halls. The latest electrical appliances will be installed. 'In short, it is proposed that nothing shall be omitted which makes for all that is ornate, all that is enduring, all that is modern in the way of arcHitecture. When in the course of events the time comes for Union Pacific removal from the old to new, it will mark an epoch, for around the present Union Pacific bullding—the old Herndon house —there clusters a wealth of early-day historical lore. “All out for the Herndon house,”” Pio- neer Jehus proudly cried—of course they were proud, for wasn't the Herndon house the most prominent hostelry in Omaha? And in those days, when Omaha was a mere tringe of primitive architecture bedecking the river front, wasn't it an honor, as cabman honor is measured, to drive the Herndon houge omnibus? If brick walls could talk, what a won- derful recital of early-day Omaha life would pour forth. While not the first hotel in Omaha, the Herndon house was the first one of a pretentious nature, and, naturally enough, it at once became the center of affairs, both social and commer- clal. What the Jefferson today is to St. Louis, what the Albany is to Denver, what the Robidoux is to St, Joseph, what the Baltimore is to Kansas City, what the Auditorium is to Chicago, what the West is to Minneapolis, what the Ryan is to St Paul, what the Claypool is to Indian- apolis, what the Loyal, the Rome, the Henshaw and others are to Omaha of this era, the Horndon was to that Omaha of yesteryears—the Omaha with the making of which the Union Pacific had 80 much to do. Dr. George L. Miller, Omaha pioneer, Wwas a prominent factor in bringing the Herndon house into existence. It was looked upon as sort of a cornerstone of the coming city, and in its day many men destined to national prominence crossed its threshold and signed their names upon its register. J. Sterling Morton and family boarded at the Herndon one winter and the story is often told of how Joy Morton, then a mere child, once came near taking the lite of his brother, Paul. Dr. Miller was the hotel physiclan. He paid special atten- tion to the Morton children. Joy Morton purchasing t; fourth, elghth, passenger floors has- MORNING, SINGLE COPY FIVE saw the doctor administering medicine and his childish mind con- celved the idea that he, too, would like to be a doctor. Finding a bottle of medicine that someone nad cast aslde, the lad doped his brother with a dose that almost proved fatal. : The “Train incident,” which is a tabloid way of designating the story of how George Francis Train became enraged at the manage- ment of the Herndon house ahd built a new hotel for spite, has been told and retold until it is indelibly impressed as a matter of local history Future generals, future governors, future United States senators and future cabinet officers, not to mention congressmen and lesser lights, thronged the Herndon house in its palmy days, for Omaha was then, as now, the principal gateway to the west, and the trek of man has ever been westward Socially, the Herndon house held full sway. Even in those prim- itive days of pioneering, when painted Indians were still lurking in the outskirts and when Councll Bluffs still vied with Omaha for west- gateway supremacy, there was a social side to life in Omaha, and many a night the belles and beaux of the coming metropolis whirled inthe giddy maze, back and forth over the freshly scrubbed ball room floor of the Herndon But the historic association of the soon-to-be vacated buflding 1s by no means confjhed to the period during which it was used as a hotel—in fact, its tenure as hotel property was comparatively brief, for other and more commodious hotels further “uptown’ came with advancing civilization, and after a shining career of a few years along came the Union Pacific railroad au- thorities with a proposition to take the property for a headquarters building, which was done. As a railroad building the old place has been dignified by the pres- ence of some of the master minds of the railroad world. The feet of Jay Gould, once the railrogd king of the world, have mountéd the Steps of the erstwhile Herndon ern The formal 1863, Alvin Saunder fifteen mil of four flat cars. General “General Bherman." Union Pacific History G L SRR S O S ‘‘ground-breaking” incident to Union Pacific construction took place in Omaha December The first spade of dirt was hrown by the late war governor of Nebraska. The first train went out of Omaha a distance of November 14, 1865 guished member of the party. The first Union Pacific engine bore DEAD, BUT HIS WORK GOES ON Headquarters Building in Omaha Will Mark an Important Epoch in Union Pacific History GEN. GRENVILLE M.DQDGF} me— = o2 S old place when Union Pacific headquarters are moved away? That is an unanswered question, and it remains to be secen what use the railroad authorities will make of it. Despite the fact that the city in its onward march has grown away from it, the value of the ground upon which it stands increases year by year, and the building itself is in a good state of preservation—in fact, it has been remodeled from time-to time and its appearance today scarcely indi- cates that it was once the original Herndon house, owing to the tact that it has been built over and materially changed. It belongs to the railroad and it is supposed that some sort of use will be found for it by the company Rallroad building is a prosaic occupation for the most part, but even so, there is In Union Pacific history much of romance and poetry. An element of the romantic tinges the story of how Indians along the route fled awe-stricken as the first train took its westward flight. The shrill whistle of the locomotive was to their supersti- tious minds like the shriek of a lost soul, and the puffing, steaming, snorting iron monster was a thing of terror to them Abraham Lincoln was early to, foresee the possibilities of a road to the west, and even while other national characters were inclined to look askance at the proposition, branding it as a chimerical, im- possible dream. In 1858 Lincoln visited Council Bluffs and discussed the situation with General Dodge, who was already engaged In mak- ing preliminary surveys. At that time the president-to-be evinced keen interest and later, after he was chosen as chief executive, he summoned General Dodge to the White House for a further confer- ence. No story of Union Pacific history I8 complete without mention of Dr, Thomas C. Durant Dr. Durant was elected vice president in the first organization of the Unlon Pa- cific and, although not chief execu- tive of the road, he is generally ac- credited with hiaving had much to do with completion of the project, It was composed Bherman was & distin the name, bouse many times, for in the earlier history of Omaha visits from Mr. Gould were by no means infrequent, and George Gould, son and succes- Sor of the then great man, has as a boy played about the halls of the old Herndon. What will become of the historie for it is related that he was of & singularly aggressive temperament. He was deeply imbued with the *do it now" idea. His career with the Union Pacific was strictly that of a builder. He devoted his energy, his money and his knowledge to successful termination of the come (Continued on Page Four.) The road reached the Central Pacific at tory, Utah, May 10, 1869. tion of the continental link and was an epoch in United States history. The union of the two lines was signalized by the driving of a golden spike. The first Union Pacific station building in Omaha stood under the hil] near the foot of Dodge street T. C. Morgan was the first Unlon Pacific station agent in Omaha, Promon- That marked the comple-