Creighton University

I never attended any classes at Creighton University, but it played a significant part during my grade school years, 1955 – 1964. During those years I was a student at St. John’s Grade School which was located on the south side of California Street in the 2500 block. St. John’s Church was across the street and a little east from the grade school. St. John’s Grade School no longer exists. The school closed in 1968 due to declining enrollment. Between the expansion of the Creighton campus and the construction of the interstate road system most of the families in St. John’s Parish had moved out. The photo below is a picture of St. John’s school.

St. John’s School

St. John’s church was unique in that it not only served a parish church, but was a chapel for Creighton University. There were something like 50 priests who taught or were otherwise employed at the university. I believe each priest was required to say a Mass every day. To accommodate them, the church had a number of side altars in addition to the main altar. I think there were nine side altars altogether. The figure below shows the location of the altars. Although a priest could say a Mass alone, it was more desirable to have at least one altar boy to serve him. For this reason, altar boys were recruited from the students at St. John’s school.

I became an altar boy. I believe I started in 2^nd grade at the age of seven. The Mass was said in Latin at the time, so one of the first things we had to do, was lean the responses in Latin. A Brother Moynihan trained the altar boys. We would go over to the church after school and take lessons from him in a room in the back of the church. Training to be an altar boy gave my first chance at a little freedom from my parents. Normally I would have to go straight home from school. My mother didn’t work outside the home and she knew how long it took me to walk home after school. If I came in more than five minutes past that time, I had to account for the delay. Once I started training to be an altar boy, however, I could goof off with friends after the training session and not get in trouble at home as long as I didn’t dally too long.

Floor Plan of St. John’s Church Showing Location of Altars

St. John’s Church

I didn’t like to play at home because we had a very small front yard and virtually no back yard. The original lot on which our house was built was platted at 50 feet by 149 feet, but had been subdivided to allow for construction of houses on 27^th Avenue. 27^th Avenue ran perpendicular to Davenport Street on which our house was built. As result of the subdivision, the long dimension of the lot was reduced by 75 feet, leaving a 50 x 74 foot lot. The house was demolished in 1964 as part of interstate highway construction, however from old family photos and aerial photography I have drawn a sketch of what the front yard looked like. It is shown below.

Front Yard at 2756 Davenport

The back yard was even smaller. Although it was as wide as the house it was only about six to 10 feet deep. In addition there was an old wood box attached to the house, a bush, a small apple tree and clothesline my mother used to dry the laundry. Also, by the time I was in 2^nd grade, I had three sisters and two brothers. My urge for “elbow room” was strong.

St. John’s School had a playground. The figure below is an enlarged view of St. John’s school and playground taken from the aerial photograph of the Creighton campus in the following figure. The resolution of the photograph is not good enough to see that the basketball hoops, swings, slide and merry-go-round on the playground. The playground had only one tree and we were forbidden to climb it. While the playground provided recreation at recess and during lunch break, it wasn’t the kind of place where I liked to “hang out”.

The Creighton University campus had various interesting places to explore. Mary Rodgers Brandies Student Center was in the next block south of St. John’s and I remember once going with a friend to check it out during recess.

We also liked to poke around the old football stadium. The University football team played their last game in 1942, but the stadium continued to be used until 1958 by the high school, Creighton Preparatory School. In 1958 the Creighton prep students moved to a new campus in west Omaha.

Aerial View of St. John’s School & Playground

There wasn’t much to see in an empty stadium; but it was fun to poke around behind the bleachers. I one found a pair of jeans and wondered who might have lost their pants. My dad also took me up there once to practice hitting baseballs.

In the wintertime some friends and I would get a cardboard box and slide down some of the embankments around the campus buildings. Omaha has a lot hills, but there was a dearth of places to sled around my home on Davenport Street. There was an alley between Davenport and Chicago streets which provided good sledding for a lot of the local kids, but my parents forbade me to use it as they feared I might go sliding out in front of a car.

My favorite place to hang out was the Jesuit Gardens, which my friend, Richard Sabata dubbed “Butter Brickle Forest” after we found a Butter Brickle candy bar there on one occasion. The images following the campus photo show the location and some of the features of Butter Brickle Forest. The first and second figures show that Butter Brickle Forest was located behind St. John’s Church and Creighton University’s administration building. These buildings hid the view of the forest from view if you were on the California looking north. To get to the forest from you would have to go up the driveway between St. John’s Church and the administration building or up the driveway near 24^th street as shown in the next figure. A retraining wall formed the eastern boundary of the gardens. The height varied, but I think it must have been 15 feet high at its highest point which was where it intersected a chain link fence which formed the north boundary. In the middle of the retaining wall there were steps that rose from 24^th Street to the garden. In the middle of the

Partial Aerial View of Creighton University Campus Around 1960

Photo Legend

1. “Butter Brickle Forest” more properly titled Jesuit Garden

2. Creighton Hall which is the Administration Building

3. St. John’s Church

4. Auditorium (demolished later to allow room for new library)

5. Football Stadium (not in use after Creighton Prep students moved to new facilities)

6. Law School Building

7. Dentistry Building

8. Sisters of Mercy Convent

9. Playground for St. John’s Grade School

10. St. John’s School

11. Wareham Hall (a men’s dormitory)

12. Deglman Dormitory

13. Mary Rogers Brandies Student Center

Aerial View of Boundary of Butter Brickle Forest

staircase, however was wrought iron gate that was always locked. It wasn’t that much of a deterrent to us. We either climbed over it or squeezed through the bars. We enjoyed the challenge.

Another, more dangerous challenge, was to go around the chain-link fence where it intersected the retaining wall. There was a short overhang in the chain-link fence. I presume this was left there on purpose to prevent unobserved entry on this isolated portion of the boundary. As kids we would climb around the overhang, braving a potential fall to the pavement about 15 feet below. It was hardly worth the effort though. Outside the fence along the north boundary was a rather steep embankment covered with dense shrubs. It was difficult to move through the shrubbery, so we spent little time there.

On the west side of the forest there was a rather unusual staircase that led from a parking area below up to the gardens. It was unusual in that the runs (horizontal dimension in direction of travel) were much longer than the risers (vertical dimension perpendicular to the direction of travel).

Aerial View of Butter Brickle from West

Driveway Entrance to Butter Brickle Forest (California St. near 24^th St.

Retaining Wall along 24^th Street (Butter Brickle Forest is above)

There were another set of stairs on the west side of the gardens. They were located adjacent to the church. The stairs themselves are not of particular significance. What was important was the slope of the embankment alongside the stairs was fairly steep. During the winter it provided a great place to “ski” downhill even though we were just sliding down in our boots or shoes. It also provided a good place to play “King of the Mountain”. For those not familiar with that game, it goes something like this. A kid proclaims himself king and other kids try to depose the self-proclaimed monarch by knocking him off the mountain and taking his place. Of course, if one is successful, you now have to try to hold the position shoving off all the contenders for the throne.

The top of the hill was also a good place to defend yourself in a snowball fight. Any military strategist can tell you the importance of holding the high ground.

We also had some massive snowball fights within the Jesuit gardens. Sometimes teams of a dozen or more would face off against each other.

Moving on to some of the other features of Butter Brickle Forest, one was the observatory. The eastern view looking out from the forest shown below includes the observatory. Below that is a close-up of the observatory in color. The observatory was built in 1886. By the time I first became acquainted with the gardens, however, I believe it was no longer used. I’m sure light pollution in Omaha by that time prevented any useful observations. Still it was an attraction to a kid. While there were steps leading up to the landing where the dome was located, it was more fun to climb

Stairs up to Butter Brickle Forest on West Side

West Side of St. John’s Church Showing Stairs

Looking to the East from within Butter Brickle Forest

up the ivy which adorned the north side.

Next to the observatory on the south side of it was a neat looking grotto. A figure below shows two different views of the grotto. When weather permitted water trickled down the rocks and into a pond below. The pond also contained goldfish. I once fell into the pond when I attempted to cross the rocks on the waterfall. I didn’t know the aquatic vegetation on them made them slippery. Needless to say I didn’t try that again.

A path of crushed stone went around about two thirds of the perimeter of the forested area of the garden. It met with a sidewalk on the south side. It was fun to ride a bicycle around the loop.

Of course the Jesuit Gardens were not built to function as a playground for children. It was intended to be a quiet place for meditation I believe. One would often see one or more priests walking around the path, reading from a book called the Breviary. As you can see in the picture above, Creighton students would also use the garden as a place to study.

Observatory

Grotto

Path along North Side of Butter Brickle Forest

Looking to the North inside Butter Brickle Forest

 Looking to the South from Butter Brickle Forest

My connection with Creighton University wasn’t all about play. In the summer of 1961, myself and several other altar boys, were temporarily employed by the university to help with moving books from the old library in the Administration building, to the new library, a new building that had recently been completed.

Beer Box

Hand Cart

Conveyor Belt

The process of moving the books went as follows. The books were placed in empty beer boxes like the one shown above. They were then placed on hand carts like the one shown above and Creighton students then hauled the carts down the driveway between the Administration building and the church, across the sidewalk in front of the church to the new library which had been recently constructed on the west side of the church. The students would haul the empty boxes back to receive another load. The old library was apparently located one of the upper floors of the Admin building because a portable conveyor belt was used to transport the empty boxes to an open window where a Creighton student received them as they came off the conveyor belt. It was interesting to watch the student handle the boxes. The discharge height of the conveyor belt was a little over the student’s head. The student would meet the boxes with outstretched arms and fling them left and right and over his head. Presumably other students were there to catch them.

Our job was to unload the empty boxes off the carts and stack them near the conveyor belt. At the end of the day we also stacked them in a parking garage at the location. In the morning we hauled them out to the conveyor belt.

I don’t recall how we came to be employed at this task. I think we probably volunteered to help. I do remember a priest giving us each a buck or something like that for compensation.

Another connection I had with the university was I served the Mass for the President of Creighton. When I first started serving Mass, Brother Moynihan assigned me to serve in the early morning. I think I was supposed to be at the church and ready to go by 7:00 a.m. I had a tendency to oversleep, however, so he reassign me to serve the 12:00 p.m. Mass during the weekdays instead. I served Mass first for Fr. Carl M. Reinert, S.J., then, after 1962, for Fr. Henry W. Linn, S.J.

I remember Fr. Reinert as being very friendly. As President of Creighton, his main claim to fame was his ability to acquire funds to construct new buildings. The number of buildings on campus increased and student enrollment shot up during his presidency. In spite of the importance of his position there was no air of arrogance about him. I felt very comfortable being around him. I remember on one occasion I was suffering from an allergic reaction to pollen. I often suffered from allergies during the summer in Omaha. Anyway, on that occasion, I wheezed my way through the Mass. Afterwards, Fr. Reinhert express great concern about my condition.

Fr. Linn succeeded Fr. Reinhert as President of Creighton. Although I didn’t feel as close to him as Fr. Reinhert, I liked serving Mass for him also. Until about 1964, the Mass was said in Latin. There was no music at the noon Mass either. Fr. Linn went through the Latin liturgy of the Mass so fast, it was usually over in about 20 minutes. I appreciated that.

My father attended the university as a graduate student. I’m not sure how long he attended classes there, but it must have been several years. He had a full time job and went to night school. He received a Master of Arts degree June 3, 1963. The graduation ceremony was held at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha. I don’t know how many of the family attend (we were a family of 8). I do remember my dad sending me up to the university to get an extra ticket to the ceremony. I think I had to see some secretary in the Administration building. Being about a month short of my 13^th birthday at the time, I was asked why I wanted the ticket. When I explained it was for my father, I got a strange look, but they gave me the ticket. I guess they didn’t have too many students with 12 year old sons at that time. Below is a picture of me with my dad after the graduation ceremony.

The Author with His Father June 1963

I also had a cousin (her mother was my Grandmother’s sister) who attended Creighton University. She was a top student and graduated with honors in 1959. She was also a princess at the all-university prom that year. I once remember her taking my older sister and I to meet some of her friends a dorm room in Gallagher Hall. This was after Mary, my cousin, graduated since Gallagher Hall didn’t open until 1961.

I also attended several of the Creighton Blue Jay Basketball games. When the team played in town it was at Omaha’s Civic Auditorium. The auditorium was due east from where I lived and was only about a nine block walk. I think we could get into the games for about a quarter. I remember watching the games from the aisles standing up. I don’t remember the reason for this. It could be that the auditorium was packed or it could have just been we wanted to be as close to the court as possible.

By the spring of 1964, demolition for the construction of Interstate 480 was underway and it looked like we’ve be moving as soon as school let out for the summer. Our house was on the demolition list. Grade school graduation was coming up, but Creighton University provided one last opportunity for amusement. The university was demolishing some houses along 25^th street between Cass and California Streets. The figure below shows the demolition.

Publication: The Creightonian;  Date: Apr 24, 1964;  Section: Front page;  Page: 1

Location of Buildings Being Demolished

The figure above shows the location of the buildings being demolished. As you can see, they were close to the grade school. At recess I and some of the other kids went down to watch the demolition. A bulldozer was engaged in the demolition. We noticed, however, there were windows not yet broken. Some Creighton students were already engaged in throwing rubble at the windows to break them, so we joined in the fray. I think someone tattled on us and we had to go before the principal. She admonished us, but we pointed out that the college students had been breaking the windows also. As I recall we weren’t punished.

During the summer of 1964 we moved out of St. John’s Parish. That was pretty much the end of my contact with the university.