Once entering the lobby of Hotel Indigo, walk past the front desk and into the snack shop. Once in the snack shop, there is a door on the left with the woman brass knocker. All you need to do is knock! Remember that a green light means there is room, so go ahead and knock, a red light means that the bar is full or they are closed.  

Hotel Indigo Omaha

Some underground vaults and tunnels make up parts of the historic Hotel Indigo Omaha, which is located blocks away from the Missouri River.Prohibition was a time that these were used for liquor running, and IHG wanted to use this theme and location to make a fun speakeasy with an Omaha theme.

Hotel Indigo welcomes guests in a sophisticated location with modern guest rooms. We will have to have a staycation here for sure!

Wilson’s life story is full of intriguing snippets like her successful brothel, which was near 9th and Douglas streets, which Wilson later turned into the city’s first hospital. Plus, her grave in Prospect Hill Cemetery, where she is buried under nine feet of concrete so “respectable” society couldn’t move it from her spot next to Dan Allen.

There is a lot of mystery around the life of Anna Wilson, including where she was from and how educated she was. It is known she got a lot of money from her common law husband, Dan Allen. Allen was a gambler in downtown Omaha, Council Bluffs, and on the riverboats on the Missouri River.

But, Wilson was pretty successful on her own, making money from her brothel for over 25 years. She was also a real estate investor, and reportedly worth more than $10,000,000 when she died in 1911. In the late 1800s, downtown Omaha was booming with people, gambling, prostitution and lawlessness. Police and government usually ignored Omaha’s seedy area, the Burnt District, until Nebraska adopted the Red Light Abatement law in 1911, ironically the same year of Wilson’s death.

In 1886, she built a 25-room mansion at North 9th and Douglas Streets. She moved in 1906 to a Kountze Place, a paved street with gas lamps and streetcars. Her home was filled with fine art, fancy wallpaper and furnishings. The yard was a well maintained garden.

She made friends in this new neighborhood. She delivered tea by hand weekly to the Old Peoples Home down the street, and befriended the seniors living there. When she died she left more than $1 Million to local charities, and gave her brothel to the City of Omaha to be used as a hospital.

She also left her mansion to the Old People’s Home Association, and gave the organization $10,000 for improvements and maintenance. She was said to have a vision of the old people sitting on the front porch. There was an issue though, and Wilson’s chauffeur Joseph Nelson was caretaker of the property. In 1912, Nelson killed himself at the home.

The Old Peoples Home Association wanted a new facility and never moved into the mansion. In 1914, the association sued the estate of Anna Wilson. Never occupying the mansion, they claimed  they were unable to use the property because of insufficient money. They wanted a clear title to the property to sell it and build somewhere else. In 1915, they were given that title, and sold the property in 1916.