Boys Town Nebraska - Nebraska Directory

Boys Town Area Cameras

Village · Douglas County · Population 410 (2020 census) · ZIP 68010 · Founded 1921 · Peak population 997 (1960)

About Boys Town

Boys Town is a village of 410 surrounded by west Omaha, about 10 miles west of downtown, between West Dodge Rd. (US 6) and Pacific St. and 132nd and 150th streets. It is the home campus of Boys Town, the youth care organization Father Edward J. Flanagan founded in 1917, and the campus, a National Historic Landmark, is open to visitors. The village has its own village office, police and post office.

History

Father Flanagan opened his home for boys on December 12, 1917, in a rented house at 25th and Dodge streets in Omaha, moved it to South Omaha in 1919, and in 1921 moved to Overlook Farm, the present campus. The village was incorporated in the mid-1930s. MGM's 1938 film Boys Town won Spencer Tracy an Academy Award; the Oscar is in the Hall of History. Flanagan died in Berlin in 1948 and is entombed in the Dowd Memorial Chapel.

Boys Town National Research Hospital was founded in 1977, and girls were admitted beginning in 1979. The campus, Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, was designated a National Historic Landmark on February 4, 1985. The population depends on the number of young people in residence: it peaked at 997 in 1960 and was 410 in 2020.

Highways and trails through Boys Town

Route	One way	Other way
US 6West Dodge Rd., along the north edge; exit at 137th St.	East to downtown Omaha (about 10 mi)	West to Elkhorn

Nearby towns

Ralston	about 6 mi southeast	I-680 and L St.
Elkhorn	about 6 mi west-northwest	US 6
Irvington	about 6 mi northeast	I-680
Papillion	about 8 mi south-southeast	I-680
Bennington	about 8 mi north-northwest	County roads
Waterloo	about 9 mi west-northwest	US 6 and US 275
Gretna	about 10 mi southwest	I-80
Omaha	about 10 mi east	US 6

Things to see

Boys Town Visitors Center and gift shop, 13628 Flanagan Blvd. (Monday–Friday 8–4:30; self-guided tours free, guided tours $5), with the Leon Myers Stamp Center and the World's Largest Ball of Stamps (begun in 1953; about 600 pounds and 4.6 million stamps) · Hall of History, 14057 Flanagan Blvd. (Monday–Saturday 10–4:30, Sunday 11–4) · Father Flanagan House, 14153 Grodinsky Cir. (1927; National Register) · Dowd Memorial Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, 13943 Dowd Dr. (1941), with Father Flanagan's tomb; Mass weekdays at 11:40 a.m. and Sundays at 8, 9:30 and 11 · Chambers Protestant Chapel, 410 Bucher Dr. · the Garden of the Bible, Father Flanagan's Garden and the Overlook Café

Schools and health care

Schools: Boys Town's private schools, at the Boys Town Education Center, serve young people living in the village

Health care: Boys Town National Research Hospital – West, 14000 Boys Town Hospital Rd. (opened 2006), 531-355-1234; other hospitals in west Omaha

Sources: U.S. Census; Wikipedia; Andreas, History of the State of Nebraska (1882); Douglas County Historical Society; NEGenWeb Douglas County; National Register of Historic Places; Nebraska Game and Parks; Papio-Missouri River NRD; city, school and hospital websites; Nebraska Department of Transportation. Distances marked "about" are straight-line estimates.