This 7 1/4" x 9 1/4" black and white photograph shows a group of children on the stairway at inside a school. The students stand in three lines on the stairs. The ceiling in the stairway area is covered with decorative tin panels, and the floor is made of wood. There is an open door at the far end of the stairway area, and there is another stairway directly across from the one where the students are standing.
Omaha Public School Archive Collection / Educational Research Library
Local Accession/Call Number
Archive Files: Brown Park School File
Historical Notes
Brown Park School, located at 19th and U Streets, opened in 1892, and it became part of the Omaha Public School District when the City of Omaha annexed the area in 1915. The school was closed and razed in1962. On May 28 of 1909, five Brown Park School boys were playing near the school when they stumbled across a gun, flashlight and several handkerchiefs. Searching further, they located a pistol and ammunition wrapped in a polka-dotted kerchief. Remembering the Union Pacific train robbery that had been in the news a few days previously, they ran to tell Miss Hayes, the school principal, about their discovery. A second search by school janitors and police found pouches from the train, four sticks of dynamite, and fuses hidden in the attic of the school. The police lay in wait and captured three of the four bandits. The fourth was apprehended some time later. A lengthy court battle ensued over the $30,000 in reward money that had been offered by Union Pacific and the Pinkerton Agency. In the end, it was reported that the five boys each received $2000.
