Lincoln Homes

17th and H St. (1983-1984)

2920 Q St. (1984-1988)

18th and F (1988-1990)

These are the three places I called home in Lincoln.

The first, was a fourth floor (upper right) furnished one-bedroom apartment in the Shurtleff Arms.  I think rent was $200/month.  In addition to the bed in the bedroom the living room had a murphy bed.  The building looks a lot better cared for now than when I lived there.

Fun facts: 

• It was 107 F (42 C) the day my father and I moved me into the fourth floor walk-up. 
• In all the excitement of moving to Nebraska I didn't think to ask about laundry.  For months I walked to a laundromat on the other side of the capitol until one cold day I saw a neighbor carrying laundry downstairs dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt.
• Once, while exhausted, I absent-mindedly only went up to the third floor, where I unlocked the door and took a step into the apartment below mine.  It was only when I heard a conversation in Chinese that I realized that I was in the wrong apartment.  That got me to wondering if one key opened all the apartments.

It is hidden by the tree on the right but the building was a block from the state capitol.  I often would cut through the parking lot -the state senator's parking lot- to get to 16th Street.  Two blocks away is the governor's mansion.  Bob Kerrey and Debra Winger were practically my neighbors!  Across H Street is the Kennard House -the oldest house in Lincoln.

The following year four of us graduate students shared the house on Q Street.  A house that will live in infamy after we held a housewarming party for ourselves and showed our guests the one 2x4 in the basement that was holding up the entire first floor.  I'm surprised it is still standing.

Jack and I had bedrooms on the second floor while Susan and Mary had theirs on the first.  Rent was $100/month each until January.  That's when we were joined by JW for half a year.  If I remember correctly, he and Jeff were kicked out of their apartment because it was to be demolished.

The Q Street house was on the edge of what was a bad neighborhood for Lincoln.  I didn't know it at the time but a kid named Joba Heath (later Chamberlain) lived just a few blocks away on Y Street.

That arrangement ran its course after a few years and I decamped back toward the capitol.  This time to the corner 18th and F Streets.  This was by far the nicest, and most expensive ($225/month!) place of the three.  I had half the first floor to myself.  Cherry wood cabinets in the kitchen and hallway.  It was quiet and there is a very nice little park at the end of the block.

The only thing I didn't like was the lack of a shower.  I was a bath-only person for a couple of years.  At least the tub was large.  The black-and-white hexagonal tiles on the bathroom floor were a bit much as well.  Especially on those nights when I came home after having a drink or two.

Following 18th Street I moved a few hundred miles east.  I hope this doesn't mean I have to make a visit to Saginaw to complete the former home series.

Comments

[Jeff]

Q st--that's where you served cat food for hors-devours!

[Joe]

The cat food was Jack's idea! Our prediction of who would eat it was accurate.