Nash Block, Omaha

The Nash Block, also known as the McKesson-Robbins Warehouse, is the last surviving building from Jobbers Canyon, the former wholesale warehouse district that helped establish Omaha as a regional distribution center. Constructed between 1905 and 1907 for M. E. Smith & Company, the eight-story building was financed by Catharine B. Nash.

It became an Omaha Landmark in 1978 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. After the remaining Jobbers Canyon warehouses were demolished during the late 1980s, the Nash Block survived as the district’s only remaining building. Designed by architect Thomas Rogers Kimball, the warehouse is an example of Renaissance Revival industrial architecture built with masonry exterior walls and heavy timber construction. Kimball incorporated advanced fire-protection features for the period, including enclosed stair and elevator shafts, fireproof doors, protected cast-iron columns, and an automatic sprinkler system. The building originally stood beside a nearly identical warehouse, but its northern twin was demolished in 1975. The surviving structure retains its brick exterior, large industrial windows, and restrained architectural detailing.

The Nash Block reflects the importance of wholesale trade, rail transportation, and warehousing during Omaha’s commercial expansion. In the late 1980s, it was rehabilitated and converted into loft apartments known as The Greenhouse, which opened in 1989. The project preserved the historic façades and original timber structure while adapting the interior for residential use. Today, visitors experience the building mainly from the exterior, where it stands as the only surviving reminder of Omaha’s historic Jobbers Canyon warehouse district.