Joslyn Castle & Gardens is planning a restoration of its historic conservatory at 39th and Davenport Street, a structure that traces back to a tornado more than a century ago. The project will restore one of only two known commissions in Nebraska by famed landscape architect Jens Jensen.
According to Grow Omaha, the Jens Jensen Historic Conservatory restoration project will revitalize the Joslyn Castle Conservatory. WOWT reported in October 2025 that the full cost of the project is $1 million.
The conservatory's roots go back to 1913, when the Easter Sunday tornado tore through Omaha and destroyed the original structure at Joslyn Castle. George Joslyn then hired Jensen to rebuild it, according to Joslyn Castle & Gardens, making the building one of just two known Jensen commissions anywhere in the state.
A Funding Gap Closed by Federal Grant
Last fall, Joslyn Castle & Gardens announced it had been awarded $357,480 in federal funding through the Save America's Treasures Grant Program to support rehabilitation and preservation of the conservatory. That award came with strings attached: the organization says the grant requires a 1:1 match, meaning it had to raise a comparable amount from other sources before the federal dollars could be fully put to use.
The station's report from October 2025 noted that the grant helped close the funding gap between what the project would cost and what Joslyn Castle had already raised on its own. The same account also detailed a structural problem driving the urgency behind the work: steel beams connecting the conservatory to the castle had begun settling and pulling apart, allowing moisture to seep into both the conservatory and the castle itself.
A Timeline Measured in Years, Not Months
Renovation coverage from last October estimated the work would take anywhere from one to two years to complete, though that figure was offered as an estimate rather than a confirmed completion schedule.
The project is a step toward preserving a structure that has stood, in one form or another, since Omaha rebuilt from a devastating storm over a century ago.
