JOSLYN CASTLE
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 cuмing 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.
THE GROUNDS AND GARDENS
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.


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But there was more to come in Omaha after the tornado of 1913. The city had scarcely recovered from the damage and devastation of that massive tragedy, and families were still suffering from the loss of loved ones and severe economic distress.
Two years later, in the summer of 1915, the Midwest was hit by a drought. Migrant workers who followed the harvest across the country were stranded in Omaha, with no work, no money, no place to stay and no means of support. Most of them were hardworking husbands and fathers of families who followed the harvest west, their whole livelihood dependent upon this seasonal work. They drifted into the city by the hundreds and could be seen standing on street corners or sleeping in alleys, tired and hungry, with desperation in their faces and no food in their stomachs. Others had been in the city all winter waiting for the late summer harvests to begin in Kansas. They would follow the harvest west and north, returning to Omaha with wages to last them until the next year's harvest. This massive unemployment was new to the city and the city found itself with few resources to face this army of unemployed. Young Fr Flanagan watched this growing crisis, as the rectory door bell rang day and night by lonely and hungry men.
But it all began on Easter morning in 1913, when a tornado struck the city of Omaha, with families and whole neighborhoods in extreme distress. He was out with his friend, the mortician, Leo Hoffman, with a wagon, picking up bodies of the dead and making arrangements for their decent burial. He had been a priest for less than a year, but there was something bottled inside of him that came to the surface and spurred him into action. From that day, the city of Omaha became not only his parish and his arena of action, it became a center for a social experiment that would almost identify the city. Boys Town was still in the future, but the seeds were laid in the genius and compassion of this man who "saw Christ in a man", and turned the whole world upside-down to carry on his own unique vision of humanity.

Ed. note:  To her credit Mrs Joslyn did request that the property be used to help  kids before she died.