Nebraska Statehood Memorial

Kennard sold the house in 1887, and it went on to serve as a boarding house and a private boys' home; in 1923 the original kitchen, dining room and bedroom wing was torn down. By 1960 it was slated for demolition until pupils at McPhee Elementary campaigned to save it, and the state bought it in 1961. Restoration aimed at the 1967 centennial, and the National Register listed it on April 16, 1969. In August 2023 the Nebraska Examiner found it closed and nearly empty, with History Nebraska proposing a $2.3 million addition it had no money to build.

What the plaque says

Nebraska Statehood Memorial From 1854 to 1867 the seat of territorial and state government was in Omaha. In 1867 the State Legislature appointed a Capital Commission to select a location for the new state capital. Commission members Governor David Butler, Auditor John Gillespie and Secretary of State Thomas P. Kennard on July 29, 1867 selected the present site. In 1869 John K. Winchell of Chicago designed masonry homes in Lincoln for each of the Com- missioners. These showplaces did much to instill confidence in Lincoln's future. Of these three structures, only the Kennard House stands today. It is apparently the oldest house within the original plat of Lincoln and is one of the finest remaining Nebraska examples of Italianate domestic archi- tecture, the leading American style from about 1855 to 1875, Nebraska's pioneer period. In 1965 the State Legislature designated the structure the "Nebraska Statehood Memorial" and assigned responsibility for the memorial to the Nebraska State Historical Society. Thus the house stands today, a symbol of the confidence early Nebraskans had in their state. Nebraska Centennial Commission Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Nebraska State Capitol — steps away
  Bertram Goodhue's 400-foot tower on the prairie, built in four phases from 1922 to 1932 and paid off on completion, home of the only one-house legislature in the country.
• Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum — 24 mi
  Two hangar-sized halls beside I-80 near Ashland holding the bombers and reconnaissance planes of the command that ran America's nuclear force from Offutt, south of Omaha, from 1948 to 1992.

More markers nearby

• The Ferguson House — steps away
• Mari Sandoz in Lincoln — 0.3 mi
• County-City Building — 0.5 mi
• The Nebraska State Historical Society — 0.7 mi