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Historic in every way . . .
George and Sarah Joslyn were the wealthiest people in Nebraska during the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. They built a home to reflect their status in 1903 on what was then a hill on Omaha’s western outskirts. They engaged architect John McDonald to design a baronial castle and he chose one in the Scottish style. It cost about $6 million to build in 21st Century dollars. The estate's original landscaping must have been stunning as the grounds were planted with rare and exotic plants from all over the world.

George died in 1916; Sarah lived in the Castle until her death in 1940.

Two decades ago, the State of Nebraska assumed ownership. The property has always been maintained, and now, through the Joslyn Castle Trust, is being painstakingly and authentically restored to its original grandeur.

Joslyn Castle is on the National Register of Historic Places and is an Omaha Landmark Historic Structure. Its grounds are the first historic Landmark Site of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum.

In 1903, Nebraska’s wealthiest couple, George and Sarah Joslyn, completed one of Nebraska’s greatest homes—a 35-room Scottish Baronial mansion atop a hill on Omaha’s outskirts.

The four-story house was completed at a cost of $250,000—about $6 million in 21st Century dollars. The pace of construction—11 months—was amazing, given the rich use of carved wood, stained glass, chiseled stone, mosaic tiles, and wrought iron.

The Castle and the carriage house were built of Kansas silverdale limestone.

The Castle includes a reception hall, music room, ballroom, a library and gold drawing room. The basement at one time had a bowling alley. With the addition of a music room in 1906, the house totaled 19,360 square feet. An interior conservatory was designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen in 1913.

George Joslyn died in 1916, in his sixties. Sarah lived on the 5.5-acre estate until her death in 1940 at age 88. From 1944 to 1989, the home served as the headquarters of the Omaha Public Schools. To preserve the integrity of this architectural treasure, the State of Nebraska took title 20 years ago. While the state retains ownership, this icon of early Omaha today is managed by the Joslyn Castle Trust.
When Sarah Joslyn died in 1940, the Joslyn Arts Society was entrusted with finding a suitable occupant. In 1944 the Castle became the headquarters of the Omaha Public School system. In 1989 the school system moved to a larger facility in the former Technical High School building at 30th and Cuming Streets. The Castle then became the property of the State of Nebraska.  

Joslyn Castle was the 1990 American Society of Interior Design (ASID)/Omaha Symphony Designer Showhouse and received extensive restoration.

The castle is an Omaha Landmark Historic Structure, and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Originally named Lynhurst by the Joslyns shortly after they purchased the property known as the Sutphen farm on the western outskirts of Omaha in 1893, the couple planned to create an unprecedented landmark property from the start.

A plan was developed by architect John McDonald that included the massive residence, a carriage house with servants’ quarters, and a gatehouse. Before the mansion was built, a large greenhouse, a palm house, a lily pond for aquatic flowers, and flowerbeds and gardens were planned and built. The estate was enclosed with a limestone wall topped with an ornamental wrought iron fence well before the mansion’s construction was underway.

Landscape architect Jens Jensen designed the rock work and pools for the conservatory inside the house.

The estate’s landscaping was arranged in an informal, yet lavish, style. Not wanting to wait years to enjoy the grounds, the Joslyns had more than 100 mature trees planted. They built a greenhouse to provide a constantly changing display of flowers for the giant flowerbeds on the 5.5-acre estate. By 1899, the grounds were developed and the greenhouse completed. Sarah developed a nationally respected collection of orchids in the greenhouse.

On Easter Sunday morning, March 23, 1913, Mrs. Joslyn took her friends to the green house to view her orchid collection. That afternoon, one of the city’s worst tornados destroyed the greenhouse, much of the Castle grounds, and a wide swath of Omaha. While the orchids survived the tornado itself, a hard freeze followed on the heels of the tornado, destroying the collection.

George had the remnants of the greenhouse removed and replaced with a six-sided clapboard summer house. On its east side was a grape arbor and squirrel house.

Birdhouses and bird feeding stations were placed throughout the Castle grounds, thoughtfully located near plants favored by various birds for food and nesting.

The estate grounds were the first to be designated a landmark affiliate site when the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum was established in 1996.

Today, landscape restoration is underway: seasonal flower beds, perennial plants and bushes. In time, two ponds forming a figure eight, spanned by a footbridge at the narrow point, will reappear. Another goal is to rebuild the greenhouse.

The Joslyn Castle Trust and its members, have been working to restore every detail of the lavish estate for many years. It invites membership for those who want to support a piece of living history in the heart of Omaha.

George and Sarah Joslyn were part of a wave of entrepreneurs who moved west after the transcontinental railroad was completed. They were Vermont natives who were not yet 30 when George landed a job with a printing firm in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1879.

Ready to lead, George agreed to open a branch office in Omaha in 1880 and began to accumulate company stock. By 1896, he owned the company. He renamed it the Western Newspaper Union and built it to become the country’s largest supplier of “ready print.” Sheets of newsprint were pre-printed with general news and features on one side and then shipped to as many as 7,500 small-town newspapers where editors printed local news on the other side.

The Joslyns adopted a daughter, Violet, who grew up in Omaha. She attended Brownell Hall and in 1913 was married to David Magowan at a ceremony in the Castle. Violet and David lived in Omaha until 1920 when David went to work in the New York office of his late father in law’s company.

Many Omaha institutions benefitted from George and Sarah Joslyn’s generosity. Sarah and seven other women formed the Board of Charities for the City of Omaha. She was on the executive boards of the Child Saving Institute and the Humane Society. George donated $25,000 in the earliest days of the University of Omaha, providing the building that housed the university until it moved to its current location in 1938.

George was in his 60s when he died in 1916. His bequests included the Fontenelle Home for the Aged, the Visiting Nurses Association, and the Nebraska Humane Society.

In 1919, Sarah was one of the largest single investors in the new Knights of AkSarBen Corporation. Others sharing her gifts included Brownell Hall, Omaha University, and First Unitarian Church.

In 1929, Sarah focused her efforts on creating a memorial to her husband, and in 1931 ground was broken for the Joslyn Memorial, a public cultural institution designed to embrace the arts costing approximately $3 million in depression-era dollars. Today the Joslyn Art Museum continues to be Sarah’s most prominent gift to Omaha. Sarah died in the Joslyn Castle in 1940, at age 88.

The Joslyn Castle Trust, Inc. perpetuates the goals of Sarah Joslyn by serving as an advocate of this magnificent property. Sarah’s instruction was to use the house to educate and enhance the cultural aspects of the Omaha community. In order to do this, the Trust, until 2008 an association called The Friends of Joslyn Castle, seeks to generate awareness, foster appreciation, and attract financial support to preserve and restore the buildings and grounds.

The Trust works with the surrounding neighborhood associations including Destination Midtown, to ensure the preservation and attractiveness of the area. The Castle grounds are a popular location for events and bring a sense of community to those living in the vicinity.

The Trust has a professionally prepared master plan for restoration of the estate, and bases its quest for major funding upon the plan.

Annual memberships support ongoing Castle activities. In return, members receive free access to Castle tours, invitations to special events, and updates of plans and events through the Castle Watch newsletter.

[From the Joslyn Castle Neighborhood Association]

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, prominent families began building large homes on North 38th Street with its commanding view of downtown Omaha and the Loess Hills of Council Bluffs. Some of the prominent families that called this area home were the McDonalds (architect of the Joslyn Castle); the Storzs (one of their earlier homes was at 4106 Davenport); the Haydens (founders of Omaha's first department store); the Barmettlers at 622 N. 38th Street (owners of the largest cracker factory ovens in the world) and of course the Joslyns.

The beginning construction of St. Cecilia's Cathedral also influenced the development of the area. On March 14, 1997, under the name of Gold Coast Historic District, a section of these homes in our neighborhood were placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service.

Public transportation also influenced the development of the area. Trolley service connected this far western edge of Omaha to the rest of the city. Through most of the 1900's, the center of commerce was not Dodge Street as it is today. The neighborhood main street radiated from the intersections of Cuming and 40th Streets. Easy access to downtown jobs by trolley fueled the building of middle-class homes in the west half of the neighborhood. Many fine examples of the popular Craftsman bungalows and Prairie Style Four-Squares today grace the western slope of the neighborhood.

In the 1920's, the city directory listed 15 to 20 businesses in a one-block radius of this intersection. Some of the businesses that occupied the mostly one-story storefronts included 3 grocers, 3 drug stores, a newspaper, a post office, a cafe and an undertaker just to name a few. The Joslyn Castle neighborhood was also the original location of the Omaha Community Playhouse. The playhouse was built in Sarah Joslyn's milk cow pasture, on the northwest corner of 40th and Davenport.