A Short History of Lincoln: From Lancaster to Nebraska's Capital

Lincoln began as a small village called Lancaster and became Nebraska's capital through a political compromise in the year the state joined the Union. In the century and a half since, it has grown into a government, university and business center, and many of the places residents use every day carry traces of that history.

This guide gives a short, sourced overview: the fight over where the capital should go, the city's early growth, the building of the present Capitol, and the redevelopment that shaped today's downtown. It draws on official state and city sources, including the Nebraska Blue Book, the state's official reference manual.

A territory divided by a river

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, signed by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854, created the Nebraska Territory and opened it to settlement. According to the Blue Book, a contest between the new town of Omaha and the older town of Bellevue to be the territorial capital was decided in Omaha's favor by acting governor Thomas Cuming, who called the first legislature to meet there.

That choice angered settlers south of the Platte River. Nebraska Studies, an educational history project from Nebraska Public Media, explains that the area south of the river had more people and wanted the capital on its side. A South Platte convention held at Brownville in 1859 even asked Congress to let the region be annexed by Kansas. The dispute was not settled until statehood, when, as Nebraska Studies puts it, a compromise made Lincoln the new capital.

Statehood and a new capital

Congress passed an act admitting Nebraska in early 1867, on the condition that the proposed state constitution drop a clause limiting the vote to free white males. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the act, Congress overrode the veto, and Nebraska joined the Union as the 37th state on March 1, 1867.

That same year, the Legislature voted to move the capital south of the Platte River, to what the Capitol's official history calls the western edge of settlement. The village of Lancaster was chosen and renamed Lincoln. The Blue Book records that Lincoln was selected as the site of the state capital on July 29, 1867. David Butler was elected the first governor, and Thomas P. Kennard served as the first secretary of state. His home in Lincoln, the Thomas P. Kennard House, is maintained by History Nebraska as the Nebraska Statehood Memorial.

Work on the first state Capitol in Lincoln began quickly. It was a two-story limestone building with a central cupola, built in 1867 and 1868, but poor construction and inferior stone soon caused it to crumble.

A university and a growing town

On February 15, 1869, the state university was chartered as a land-grant institution. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln notes it was one of the first institutions west of the Mississippi River to award doctoral degrees, with the first granted in 1896.

The town itself was laid out with commerce in mind. According to the Downtown Lincoln Association's history of the Haymarket, the original 1867 plat of Lincoln set aside a Market Square between O and P streets from 9th to 10th. When a federal courthouse was built there in 1874, the market moved north to Haymarket Square, bounded by 9th, 10th, Q and R streets. It served as an open-air market for produce and livestock, a camping ground for immigrants and a general gathering place.

Railroads drove growth. The Blue Book notes that the Union Pacific began building west from Omaha in 1865 and crossed the state two years later, and that by the mid-1880s Burlington lines crisscrossed Nebraska. In Lincoln, wholesale and manufacturing businesses spread east of the rail yards in the 1870s and 1880s, and the large warehouses of that era still define the Haymarket.

Growth was not steady. Grasshopper swarms damaged crops statewide between 1874 and 1877, and land prices collapsed in 1890. The Downtown Lincoln Association's history says the 1880s boom quadrupled Lincoln's population to 55,000, and the depression of the 1890s brought it down to 40,000 by 1900.

A second Capitol rose in stages, with its first wing finished in 1881 and the full building in 1888. It too suffered from poor construction and was settling structurally when talk of a third Capitol began in 1915.

The Capitol that defines the skyline

In 1920, a nationwide design competition chose New York architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. His team included sculptor Lee Lawrie, tile and mosaic designer Hildreth Meière, and Hartley Burr Alexander, who developed the building's themes and inscriptions. The Capitol was built in four phases from 1922 to 1932. The Blue Book notes that it was funded by a special capitol levy and paid for on completion, at a cost just under its $10 million budget.

Its 400-foot tower, topped by Lawrie's 19-foot bronze Sower, became the city's signature landmark. The Capitol is a National Historic Landmark. For a visitor's view, see our guide to visiting the Nebraska State Capitol.

Inside, the building soon housed a change in how Nebraska governs itself. In 1934, voters approved a one-house legislature, 286,086 to 193,152, and the first unicameral session met in 1937. It started with 43 senators; the Blue Book notes the number grew to 49 in 1965, and senators are elected on a nonpartisan basis.

Goodhue also proposed a grand avenue leading north from the Capitol in 1922. Progress stalled for decades, and by 1967 the mall had been built to mark Nebraska's centennial and named Centennial Mall. The city refurbished it, finishing by 2017 in time for the state's 150th anniversary.

Redevelopment and a modern downtown

In the late twentieth century, Lincoln began rediscovering its warehouse district. The Downtown Lincoln Association's history notes that the Haymarket was designated a local landmark district in 1982, the city adopted a redevelopment plan in 1984, and the area was selected as a National Main Street Center demonstration project in 1985. It was named a Great American Neighborhood by the American Planning Association in 2009 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Lincoln Haymarket Historic District in 2014.

Two more changes reshaped the city's edges in the 2000s and 2010s. In 2008, the Legislature moved the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island, and in 2010 the university acquired the 249-acre former fairgrounds to create Nebraska Innovation Campus. In the West Haymarket, Pinnacle Bank Arena officially opened in August 2013.

Where to learn more

• History Nebraska maintains the Museum of Nebraska History at 131 Centennial Mall North and the Kennard House at 1627 H Street.
• The Capitol's official website has a detailed history of the building and its predecessors, and the Capitol offers free guided tours.
• The Downtown Lincoln Association's Haymarket history page traces the district from the 1867 plat to its National Register listing.

Opening hours and tour availability change, so check each site before visiting.

Key takeaways

• Nebraska's capital moved from Omaha to the village of Lancaster, renamed Lincoln, in 1867, the year Nebraska became the 37th state.
• The move ended a long rivalry between settlers north and south of the Platte River.
• The university was chartered in 1869, and railroads fueled Lincoln's growth and its Haymarket warehouses.
• Today's Capitol, built 1922 to 1932, was Nebraska's third in Lincoln and houses the one-house Legislature that first met in 1937.
• Downtown redevelopment from the 1980s onward turned the Haymarket into a landmark district listed on the National Register in 2014.

Sources

• Nebraska Legislature, Nebraska Blue Book 2024 (2025)
• Nebraska State Capitol, History of the Nebraska Capitol Building
• Nebraska Studies (Nebraska Public Media), The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• University of Nebraska–Lincoln, About
• Downtown Lincoln Association, Haymarket History
• Nebraska Legislature, History of the Unicameral
• Lincoln Parks and Recreation, Centennial Mall
• Pinnacle Bank Arena, About PBA