Keystone, Omaha

During the late 1800s, the area of Keystone was mostly pasture land with a few farms in various areas. After the Kansas–Nebraska Act was passed, land sales began. The land was purchased initially by Daniel Voorhees. William A. Paxton purchased[1] the land from Voorhees in 1883 and a year later deeded it to his son William Paxton Jr., who would own the land until his death in 1910. The Keystone Stock Farm occupied much of the land owned by the Paxtons.[2]

In 1907, the land surrounding the Paxton house was called the Keystone Park Addition.[3] The land was divided into tracts and sold in amounts anywhere from 2 acres to 20 acres. Advertisements started running in the Omaha World-Herald advertising the great opportunity for land that had yet to be plowed. Boulevards were laid out which is why the center of Keystone is not like many of the neighborhoods that developed at the time where they mostly had a grid like layout. The boulevards were laid out with trees lining them and were intended to be winding to create a scenic view in the area.

Homes began to pop up around the current homes and started to stretch down Boyd Street. After William Paxton Jr's death, tracts began to be sold. Advertisements used the winding, tree lined roads as a selling point. In 1925 Adams School was built just south of the Paxton home that sat at the intersection of N. 79th St and Evans, today part of the school's playground. As the area grew, a prominent resident, Carl Renstrom, lived on Keystone Drive[4] until he moved to his new mansion on Pacific Street. Another prominent resident of Keystone was Tom Dennison,[5] also known as the Grey Wolf, who lived in a home on Graceland Drive. The home was a large brown brick home with a very stately property. By the 1920s Cherrycroft was offering kennels as was Tom Dennison. Additionally, the area known as Pinecrest which is the section just south of where Fort St meets Military Road had some homes begin to pop up that still exist today.

Keystone grew rapidly in the post World War II era. Over two-thirds of the homes now standing were built after 1950 and by the early 1960s the area became largely developed. Many of the homes built at this time share a very similar layout but are often identical to each other. Some homes were torn down and new homes were built over them. The number of homes built after 1980 is less than 100, excluding the low-income housing area on Boyd Street. As the neighborhood grew, there were various needs that came up through the years including the need for a new school, the need for churches, the need for parks, and other normal amenities of a growing neighborhood.

Early Keystone developed with American Elm tree lined roads. Ash and Maple trees gradually replaced the original American Elm canopy when Dutch elm disease arrived in the mid 1960s.

The Keystone Pool was built by the early 1950s as requested by the residents. Mr. Hargleroad who owned much of the northwest end of Keystone agreed to build the pool and purchase 200 memberships for the area if the neighbors purchased 200 more. The Hargleroad addition makes up most of the northern section of Keystone. It was Incorporated in 1957 to be Keystone Klub Inc.