Of the many thousands of visitors who turn up annually in Nebraska City, most visit Arbor Lodge and its adjacent park, associating it with its original owner and instigator of Arbor Day, J. Sterling Morton.
What many, if not most, of the visitors who see the many family mementoes, photos and artifacts don’t realize is that J. Sterling Morton never saw the mansion we marvel at today. The almost constantly changing and growing house, which was begun in 1855, probably contains some of the original timbers, but they are far from obvious.
A 22-year-old Julius Sterling Morton and 21-year-old Caroline Morton set out from Detroit on their wedding day, Oct. 30, 1854, for the not-even-one-year-old Nebraska Territory.
After traveling by train to St. Louis, steamboat to St. Joseph and stagecoach to Omaha, they finally reached Bellevue, their first Nebraska home. The Mortons' first house was a “two-room log cabin high on a bluff above the Missouri River†across from Trader’s Point, Iowa.
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Early the following year Morton became editor of the Nebraska City News, living briefly at the Planter’s House hotel in Kearny City, which would ultimately become part of Nebraska City itself. That spring he claimed squatter’s rights on 160 acres of prairie west of Nebraska City.
When the federal survey was completed, he received a patent on the land on May 1, 1860, paying $1.25 per acre. It was there that he and Caroline sited their first house, which was built in the winter of 1855-56 and noted as the “first frame house with shingles between the Missouri River and California.†This house was described as being shaped as an L and located two miles west of the river.
In the fall of 1858 additional farmland was acquired and a porch on the east side of the house had been completed as the first addition to the original structure. In 1858, also, Morton was appointed secretary of the Nebraska Territory by U.S. President Buchanan, allowing him to subsequently serve as acting governor, there being no official office of lieutenant governor at the time.
The first of five true additions to the original cabin was made in 1864 as a western wing and a second story were added, which doubled the size of the 1855 building.
After minor remodeling in 1871, 1873-74 saw the front porch entirely rebuilt on a new foundation and dormers added to the front and the brick driveway begun; Â 1874 also saw Morton use, for the first time, the name Arbor Lodge in his farm journal, replacing his earlier references to the house as Morton Ranche.
By 1878 the second major remodeling was competed with a south elevation bay window and second floor bathroom with water closet. The design, at that point, was noted as Victorian with wrap-around double-deck porches and now boasted 18 rooms. The Nov. 1, 1879, issue of the Nebraska City News editorialized “there is no place west of the Hudson River and this side of California that can compare with it.â€
Only a year later, what is sometimes called the second major remodeling, said the $1,200 construction was “paid for and unmortgaged†bringing the house to a total of 30 rooms. This addition built around the north, south and east sides of the 1864 building.
In the mid-1880s, photos show it reading as a two-story house and in 1894 Caroline, Sterling and sons Joy and Paul had made the decision to make Arbor Lodge their summer home. The year 1888 saw the 23-acre Morton Park deeded to the city and at the turn of the century, the extant stables were built at a cost of $10,000. One of the conveyances still residing in the stables is a stagecoach purchased in 1894 principally to transport visitors from the Nebraska City railroad station with a true old west experience.
On April 27, 1902, J. Sterling Morton died and title to Arbor Lodge transferred to Joy Morton who continued to use the house as a summer residence. That year Joy hired Wheaton, Illinois, architect Jarvis Hunt to draw plans for the last major revision of the mansion with landscape architects planning gardens on the south side of the house below his bedroom.
This $66,000 expansion roughly doubled the square footage of the previous plan to the extant Neo-colonial design which features semicircular porches to the north, east and south elevations, a Tiffany cathedral glass ceilinged sunroom, a one-lane basement bowling alley, gave the mansion a total of 52-rooms and saw the entire building stuccoed.
Joy Morton continued using Arbor Lodge as a summer residence but in 1922 decided to give the house, gardens, 43-acre grounds and Morton Park, which had been returned by the city, to the state of Nebraska with the mansion becoming a museum. The Legislature accepted the gift in September of 1923 and on April 1, 1924, it was opened to the public.
In 1976 Arbor Day Park was designated an arboretum and, although Arbor Lodge State Park is owned by the Nebraska Game and Parks, the 72-acre park and mansion’s brochure claiming that “some of the original timbers were preserved and are still in service,†and is managed by Arbor Day Farm/Arbor Day Foundation and, unlike other Game and Parks properties, does not require a park permit.
Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write to him in care of the Journal Star or at jim@leebooksellers.com.