Dorchester Times: In Search Of Dorchester's Best Christmas Display

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

In Search Of Dorchester's Best Christmas Display

The Christmas spirit is alive and well in the village!

Take a stroll around Dorchester and you will find some creative holiday decorations. We are encouraged once again this year to see so many residents displaying their Christmas cheer.

From one end of town to the other, friends, neighbors and passersby have plenty of visual treats.

We want to know the Dorchester area homes you think best reflect the Christmas spirit so fellow Times readers can check out the decorations for themselves.

What Dorchester residence gets your vote for best holiday display? Let us know your nomination in the comments section of this post. Or e-mail us photos of your favorites at Dorchester.Times@gmail.com.

In the meantime, our younger readers may be interested in Santa's whereabouts as Christmas nears. By clicking here, children can get a glimpse of Santa's journey around the world last year. And they can prepare to track Santa's Christmas Eve route by clicking here.

7 comments:

AnonymousDecember 9, 2008 at 4:57 PM
That's a lovely home. It reminds me of the old Country Club section in Lincoln.
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AnonymousDecember 9, 2008 at 5:02 PM
I like the Rains and Hromeks houses on the south side of town
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AnonymousDecember 10, 2008 at 9:44 AM
I'm split between several homes north of the football field. The entire neighborhood looks great!
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AnonymousDecember 10, 2008 at 3:27 PM
Hopefully the Christmas decorations will be left alone so the town can enjoy them. I heard some of the Briggs' Halloween display was stolen. Thank you to all who decorate. It is very enjoyable to see the beautiful decorations!!

Happy Holidays.
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AnonymousDecember 11, 2008 at 3:24 PM
I gotta give my second vote to Phil Weber's house and yard. Very nice.
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AnonymousDecember 11, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Henning's always have the best display! No one can beat that! They have a lot of fun decorations to look at. I agree that Phil and Bernice Weber's look nice as well as Bob and Trish Hostetler. It seems like this year hardly anyone is putting up any decorations. Thanks to all of those who have put up lights and decorations!
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AnonymousDecember 11, 2008 at 11:03 PM
Yep, I agree Hennings place is tops.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."