Nebraska icon on the move: Relocation set for historic Bryan mansion, to let hospital grow
The Fairview mansion, built around 1901 for William Jennings Bryan and his wife, Mary, is now up and off of its foundation and ready to be relocated Nov. 7, weather permitting. (Courtesy of Bryan Health)
LINCOLN — Nebraska’s capital city is preparing for an unprecedented spectacle Saturday.
One of Lincoln’s two prestigious National Historic Landmarks — the 125-year-old Fairview mansion built for political heavyweight William Jennings Bryan and his wife, Mary — will be relocated to a different corner of the hospital campus that grew around it.
That’s 2.3 million pounds of brick house, moving at one mile per hour atop 34 specialized remote-controlled dollies, each with eight semi-truck-size tires. Crews will be laying out a temporary path of gravel, rock and steel plates between the mansion’s current and future sites.
It’s expected to take about 10 hours for the home to travel about a third of a mile from the south side of Bryan East Campus to its northeast corner at 52nd and A streets.
Bryan Health officials are inviting the public to watch from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and participate in related “fun zone” activities including food and information booths. They’ve put safety and traffic measures in place and said ongoing construction should not disrupt voting Tuesday at a campus polling place.
‘Landlocked’ medical campus
For a few days at the start of this week, roughly 500 tons of rock is to be hauled daily into a lot on the medical center campus lot, with a truck arriving every 15 or so minutes. The material is to be used to create the makeshift road.
Moving the Fairview risked its historic designation, but Bob Ravenscroft, Bryan Health’s vice president and chief development officer, said hospital leadership saw it as the best option to satisfy community health needs and growth demands of a “landlocked” medical campus.
Another alternative was demolition, an option Ravenscroft said neither the hospital nor community members wanted. He said expanding or relocating hospital components elsewhere on campus was cost-prohibitive.
It was important, he said, to preserve the storied structure — which over the decades has served also as student dorms, daycare, a museum — and put it back into use.
The move will enable expansion of Bryan East’s emergency department — which is adjacent to the mansion — and the neonatal intensive care unit. Emergency patients more than doubled in the last decade, Ravenscroft said. And, he said, the NICU is “routinely full, dang near overflowing.”
“We have over 50 counties in the state that no longer have obstetric services,” Ravenscroft said. “It’s compromising prenatal care. … We need to expand the capacity to treat these tiniest babies.”
‘Parade of political personalities’
Ravenscroft lauded the “tremendous donation” from William and Mary Baird Bryan a century ago that started the hospital.
The story goes back to 1901, when, according to an account in the Nebraska State Historical Society archives, the Bryans broke ground on their Lincoln home that would be known as Fairview. Proceeds from the internationally known lawyer and U.S. congressman’s publications helped build the mansion Bryan envisioned as a new Monticello. He accepted the 1908 presidential nomination on its front steps.
“Woodrow Wilson visited here during the 1912 campaign and a steady parade of political personalities came to consult with ‘The Great Commoner,’” the Explore Nebraska History team wrote in a passage about Fairview. Bryan, a three-time Democratic presidential nominee, served as secretary of state under President Wilson through 1915.
His wife’s health led the family to move in 1921 from Nebraska to Florida, and the following year they deeded Fairview and a portion of surrounding land to the local Methodist Conference for construction of a hospital. Four years later, Bryan Memorial Hospital opened its doors, named in Bryan’s honor after his death in 1925.
Bryan is one of 28 members of the Nebraska Hall of Fame.
The mansion became a student dormitory for the Bryan School of Nursing and for four decades was home to hundreds of future medical professionals, a hospital statement said.
In 1963, the National Park Service named Fairview a National Historic Landmark for its exceptional significance in American history and culture. Nebraska has 23 such designations; the only other Lincoln one is the State Capitol.
While a recognition of notoriety, the federal landmark designation doesn’t automatically offer protection from demolition or relocation.
“Being reverent of the original gift remains important to us,” said Ravenscroft.
Confident of designation
He said Bryan officials have consulted and worked with the city of Lincoln and the city’s Historic Preservation Commission on the relocation project, and are confident the federal designation will be retained. The Lincoln Lancaster Planning Commission voted in April to support the mansion move.
Guidance from experts, including a preservation architectural firm, led to “meticulous” removal, digital cataloging and storage of basement woodwork and other materials, he said. The plan is to rebuild the mansion basement at the new site. That area reportedly served as a family living area and also was where Bryan wrote his speeches, books and newspaper editorials for “The Commoner.”
“We feel really really really good about this (effort to retain the federal designation) because of the due diligence we’ve done and the feedback,” Ravenscroft said, though he added that a reevaluation process is required after the home is relocated and put back into use.
The relocated structure will not be occupied for a few years, Ravenscroft said.
It is to be the centerpiece of an expanded Bryan College of Health Sciences and used for administrative offices, a welcome center and student services. Fundraising is ongoing for that initiative, he said.
Several days ago, in preparation for the Nov. 7 move, the Fairview was lifted off the ground using a unified hydraulic jacking system. Steel beams were inserted through foundation openings to form a supportive framework beneath the surface. The foundation then was filled with rock.
Some street closures, as early as Tuesday night, will be required to accommodate the move, said Jeff Bliemeister, Bryan director of safety and security. Volunteers will be on hand the day of the event to direct the public to the activity hub and to areas with “up-close views” of the mansion as it is relocated.
Bliemeister and Ravenscroft offered an update of the project and road closures during a virtual news conference Friday.
An online auction is currently active — featuring furnishings from when the home was recreated in the 1990s, Ravenscroft said. About 300 objects are for sale, among them an R.J. Horner style buffet, a Victorian-style carved oak table and chairs, a vintage LaBarge Louis XVI style mirror, rugs and wall hangings.
The public will be able to view auction items in person the day of the move. Proceeds are to go toward refurbishing the mansion.
Pet cemetery?
A popular conversation surrounding the project has centered on what will happen to a pet burial ground on the Fairview property, Ravenscroft said. He said a dog and a horse were buried on the premises.
“Here’s our pickle: The gravestones have not been in the same spot all of these years, so we’re as curious as anybody to see … what we’ll find.”
He said that since the remains are not human, there were no legal implications.
David Kracman of Lincoln is among those monitoring and questioning the fate of the mansion as well as the pet graves. He told Ravenscroft in an email that while he was saddened by the house relocation, he was sympathetic to growth and modernization needs of the hospital.
Kracman referenced a 1924 newspaper clip about a pair of dogs, Tiny and Major, that were considered members of the Bryan family and buried on the property. He suggested moving their remains and grave marker to the same spot relative to the house at the new location.
“Given the importance of these two dogs to the Bryans, I think some extra effort is required to show proper respect to the family,” Kracman wrote.
Ravenscroft said two pet tombstones have been moved to a safe location and that any excavation won’t occur until later construction phases. He said pet remains won’t be relocated and hospital officials will decide later what to do with the headstones.
The lifesize statue of Bryan that was on Fairview property has been removed and preserved.
In the case of bad weather or unforeseen circumstances, hospital officials said the relocation of the mansion will push back a week. Work will continue in the days after the move to position Fairview into its new spot with a new view.
“Fingers are crossed for good weather,”Ravenscroft said. “It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing that impacts the community’s ability to access emergency care.”
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