The first residential subdivision with a private park in Nebraska, Woodsshire was designed in 1925 by landscape architect Ernst H. Herminghaus for real estate developers Woods Brothers Silo and Manufacturing Company. It is one of several successful subdivisions he designed for them in Lincoln, which also led to numerous private garden commissions.
The subdivision was designed to be more sympathetic to the site’s natural topography than many typical Midwestern “gridiron” plans. Lots vary in size, shape, and orientation in response to the street system, which features two planted round-abouts that soften the street corner transitions.
Woodsshire Park sits west of center in the subdivision, a linear park that occupies a shallow ravine three blocks long. The 3.4-acre park is primarily manicured lawn interspersed with naturalistic planting beds and a diverse range of evergreen and deciduous trees. These plantings flank the park’s edges, ensuring a sense of privacy both for fronting lots and for people within the park. At its southern end, a large circular lawn is ringed by shade trees. At its northern end the park terminates with a view towards the Nebraska State Capitol tower designed by Bertram Goodhue, which was still in the planning stages when Woodsshire was built. Herminghaus designed the landscape for the Capitol in 1933.
