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Durham Western Heritage Museum
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
5 reviews for Durham Western Heritage Museum
Programming note before we begin, they have changed their name to "The Durham Museum" in order to appropriately reflect the nature of their exhibits (or something like that).
Where to begin?
As a museum, it's a fun day to hang out and look at the exhibits, which are almost always interactive in some way, but I don't think that people make trips to Omaha just to see it, it's sort of 'we have a day left, what should we do?' type of stop.
In addition to being a mild manner museum by day, they rent out the main hall for events (like my wedding), which is what this review will focus on:
My wife and aren't particularly religious, and didn't want to pick a random church/denomination just to get married in (in case we /do/ start going to church, we don't want to pick the wrong one!). Because of this, we started looking around town for venues where we could have the ceremony and the reception.
We had a few requirements: it had to be cool, easy to decorate, large enough that we could have the ceremony, dinner, and dance in the same place without it feeling crowded or boring, and close to hotels (almost all of our guests were out of town). The DWHM delivered spectacularly on all accounts, and I shall now address them independently.
1) Cool:
This place has cool in spades, it was at one point a major passenger rail hub, and the main portion of the building is what was once the station. As such, there is a ticket counter, a soda fountain, huge benches, and everything is carved out of stone or marble. Aside from being awesomely laid out, the decor astounds. The whole place is in awesomely classic art deco style. From the huge ceiling, to shiny (stone?) floor, to the black and white tile bathrooms, just put on your tuxedo and it's 1930 all over again. The exterior is made of these huge blocks of white stone that were beautiful /before/ they carved the whole building with in relief. Now they are just spectacular. All in all this hands down the best place in town to have fancy party (they have lots of parking too!).
2) Decorations
My favorite part about this venue? Decorations are in no way needed. I would have felt like a damn fool hanging up bows, or ivy, on anything of the sort. We did put a whole bunch of votive candles over the (again, huge) air vents built into the benches in the station room for some ambiance, but anything else would have just ruined the style of the place. This was a big plus in offsetting the (slightly high) price tag for the rental; we were able to roll our decorations, flower, and event budget into one!
3) Big:
If reading part 1 didn't convince you, this place is huge! And the rental includes the entire first floor, which has 3 distinct areas, the 'hall', the station, and a room that has a whole bunch of murals on the wall. This made getting married here great, ceremony in the hall, dinner in the station, dancing in the mural room. The hall is a large west facing room that is perfect for evening ceremonies. We put up a white sheet over the windows and the setting sun made the whole room glow (and a little warm, but that could have just been nerves...). The station area is very, very large. Football stadium large... but with a roof. The ceiling is so high one guest got vertigo looking at, which I think is awesome. There was plenty of room for us to set up tables for 200 people without going into the (massive) aisles between the benches, so I'm sure you could fit a lot more in. This is also where the original station bar sits, the caterers used this as the bar and it felt really cool. Finally, the mural room is just a big room that we put a dance floor in the middle of to party. It is decorated very nicely, but the lights were dimmed most of the time so it makes it hard to appreciate.
4) Because most of our family are small town folk, it's a long drive into the big city (yes, some people call Omaha 'the big city'). As such, we wanted our venue to be close enough to hotels that our slightly (ahem, heavily) inebriated families could get back to their rooms. The Durham is smack in the middle of down town, and less than a block from the Embassy Suites on 10th street. The walk from the museum to the hotel is over the 10th st bridge, which has been renovated by the city to include lots of lights and more old timey coolness to go along with the museum, so don't worry, it's safe.
Lastly, the basement has a series of train cars that are 'preserved' (aka, inside) so you can go in them and see what it was like to travel by rail. This was a great place to take wedding photos!
Overall, I loved the fact that we had 3 separate and distinct spaces to have our event in, I think it is nearly impossible to beat the decor, and I love that it's close to hotels (or bars, since you have to be out at midnight). I would recommend this venue to anyone planning any reasonably upscale event, and could never write enough here about how happy I was with the museum for our wedding
1 star--for just being in existence and not being left to rot
2 star--for good exhibits which aren't necessarily connected with railroading
3 star--for the UP passenger/sleeper cars you can walk thru
4 star--for a gift shop that actually has stuff you want to buy and isn't a ripoff
5 star--don't get me started on being able to get a chocolate malted at that soda fountain
This place is worth visiting for the art deco alone. The lobby of this Union Pacific showpiece station is magnificent, as is the restored dining room from the first hotel in Omaha that became the station's restaurant. You can still have an ice cream at the Swanson soda fountain.
Downstairs, there are full-sized trains that you can walk through and exhibits that give a complete history of Omaha from the native Americans to present. Plus a rare coin collection, at theatre, children's exhibits, and temporary exhibits.
This place is affiliated with the Smithsonian and is up to that calibre. It is a great place to bring kids, even toddlers will enjoy it as they can explore the trains.
I am here for a brief stay, but am planning to come back for a second look, there is so much to see. Plus I skipped the ice cream the first time around....
This museum is housed in an old but remodeled train station with ceiling that go up 3 stories. ECLECTIC best describes this museum. There is a little about everything in the old west and even more recent history here. There is a retired coal fired steam locomotive with dining car, sleeping car, caboose, main engine car.....for you to walk through as see. This reminds me staying at the Queen Mary. You feel you have been time warped to a past century going through these cars.
If you are in Omaha for business or travel, it is worth stopping by here. On the contrary its not worth a dedicated trip say from Wash DC or LA... just to see this museam
I didn't have high expectations of this museum, I was going more for the enjoyment of my husband and son. I had a blast! There is so much to see and being able to get on the trains is great. There are so many great items in the store it was hard to hold back. The soda fountain was a nice treat at the end of our adventure.
