Your walking tour brings you to the Durham Museum, housed inside Omaha's former Union Station at 801 South 10th Street. Housed in Omaha’s former Union Station and once called the Durham Western Heritage Museum, this institution is dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of the United States’ western region and is an affiliate within the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The story you’re standing in began when, after the establishment of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (now Amtrak), Union Pacific Railroad closed Union Station in May 1971.
The first public suggestion to turn the building into a museum appeared on April 5, 1971 in the Public Pulse of the World Herald, when John Edward Peterson urged the City of Omaha or Joslyn to buy or seek donation of the station. The city received the station as a gift in 1973, and the Western Heritage Museum opened that same year. Later, the museum closed from 1995 to 1996 for a $22 million renovation largely funded by Charles and Margre Durham.
Notice that a $22 million renovation, largely funded by Charles and Margre Durham, transformed this station into the museum you see today.